Leftist Bishop Budde Uses Bully Pulpit to Beg Trump to ‘Have Mercy’ on Illegal Immigrants

National Prayer Service sees politicized plea in defense of illegal immigrants.

Amid the pomp and circumstance surrounding the inauguration — and the immediate executive orders making good on President Donald Trump’s campaign promises — the new president and vice president visited the Washington National Cathedral for the National Prayer Service, a tradition dating back to 1933. Unable to resist the lure of the bully pulpit, Episcopal bishop Mariann Budde used her sermon to make a final plea for the ideals of Kamala Harris’s failed campaign. After reflecting on the importance of unity, Budde appealed directly to President Trump, asking him to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now” — specifically, “gay, lesbian, and transgender children … who fear for their lives” and illegal immigrants.  Her remarks were met with slow blinks and a long-suffering sigh from Trump and poorly concealed skepticism from Vance. Second Lady Usha Vance was unfazed, remaining politely attentive throughout — though, as the mother of three young children, she has plenty of practice keeping a straight face amid infantile behavior.  Frustrating as the schoolmarm lecture was for onlookers, however, the optics worked in the president’s favor. After all, Trump remains undefeated in presidential races against liberal women, and Americans have shown that they are tired of being lectured by progressives certain of their own moral superiority. After four years of insanity, Trump was elected to bring about, in his own words, a “revolution of common sense.”  In her appeal for “mercy” towards illegal immigration, Budde recited a litany of jobs done by immigrants: The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat at restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.  Actually, every illegal immigrant is a criminal, for the simple and obvious reason that ...