BEHAR: “There was a national press service yesterday in D.C. led by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde who made this plea to the newly elected president, watch.”

[Clip starts]

BUDDE: “Mr. President, millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people, 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 in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”

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BEHAR: “Oh, he didn’t like that. (Applause) Trump did not get the message, and now he’s demanding an apology. So here to respond, please welcome Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. Welcome to the show.” (Cheering and Applause)
BUDDE: “Thank you.”
BEHAR: “So let me ask you this, you seem to have more fearlessness than anyone in Congress right now, ma’am. What made you decide to use that opportunity for this message, or didn’t you have any apprehension about it?”
BUDDE: “My response — thank you, first of all, for allowing me to be with you today. My responsibility that morning, yesterday morning, was to reflect, to pray with the nation for unity. And as I was pondering what are the foundations of unity, I wanted to emphasize respecting the honor and dignity of every human being, basic honesty and humility. And then I also realized that unity requires a certain degree of mercy, mercy and compassion and understanding. And so knowing that a lot of people, as I said, in our country right now are really scared, I wanted to take the opportunity in the context of that service for unity to say we need to treat everyone with dignity and we need to be merciful. And I was trying to counter the narrative that is so divisive and polarizing and in which people, real people, are being harmed.”
BEHAR: “OK.”
NAVARRO: “You know, Bishop, I was struck by your tone. You were so gentle. You were so respectful. You were very demure and very mindful. And you said all of this with Trump, J.D. Vance and their families, including Melania, an immigrant, and Usha Vance, a child of immigrants, sitting there.”
BUDDE: “Right.”
NAVARRO: “And their reactions were very visible for all of us to see. You could see their faces. Were you paying attention to how your message was received by them in that moment? And do you think it sunk in even a little bit?”
BUDDE: “You know, I’ve been preaching for a long time and I’ve long since given up trying to read people’s body language as I’m preaching. I — because I would be wrong most of the time. So I don’t know. I wasn’t — I was aware that obviously people were listening. And but I couldn’t allow myself in that moment to — to — I just had to keep going, right? I had what I felt was on my heart to say, and I had to leave it to them, to all of us to take from whatever — you know, from whatever my words were to harden whichever way they could and — and leave, as they say, lead the rest to God.”