Franklin Graham Slams Bishop Budde’s Sermon: ‘She’s a Socialist Activist’

BROOKS: “Your thoughts on the sermon there, kind of seemed like a political speech to me. What say you?”

Graham: “It’s — she was wrong to do that. That was really a national forum, a national stage pulpit that she was standing in, and for her to use that for her own political agenda was wrong. And, plus, you know, you’re talking about compassion, you know, give me a break. If you want to have compassion, then we should have just had 747s come from all around the world, let people just fly into the United States and let them off the airplane. But what we did is what the Biden Administration did, said the border is open. If you can make your way to the border, come on. And so, people went to Venezuela and Mexico, come out of the Darien Gap through Panama. Women were raped, people were killed. Children died along the way, and so now you get to the border, if you can come across Rio Grande and make your way through the barbed wire, then — compassion, you know, come on. These people suffered a luck to come here illegally and the Biden Administration is responsible for all of this mess, but the people need to go back and come in legally. So I support the president on that. That has nothing to do with compassion, has to do with what’s right. If you want to have compassion, then have the law the same for everybody. Don’t have a law for one group and another law for another group. No, it’s one law fits all and we need to stay with that.”

SZISH: “Reverend, the Bishop’s admonishments were not the first time that she has been hypercritical of the president. Take a look in 2020 at a George Floyd protest. Here’s where she was sharing her thoughts on President Trump during his first term.”

[Clip starts]

UNKNOWN: “So, what is your message to President Trump today?”

BUDDE: “Well, he should — I’ve given up speaking to President Trump. We need to replace President Trump. We need leadership that will lead us in the ways that this country deserves.”

[Clip ends]

SZISH: “Obviously not a fan of President Trump and obviously not afraid to share that. I understand, I’m 100 percent in favor, of course, of free speech, but does it complicate things when that happens to be the same Bishop speaking at this all important prayer service on Inauguration Day?”

Graham: “Well, she is a socialist activist, LGBTQ plus agenda and that’s — you know, so she’s just wrong. I don’t know why they have her there, but it’s not just her, but it’s — it’s the others that are there. They’re all the same stripe and they share the same goals. So these are activists, and no question, they hate Trump. I don’t know why they hate Trump. Trump stands for truth. If President Trump tells you something, he’s going to do it. You know, the media try to make him out as a liar. He’s not a liar. He doesn’t wake up in the morning, I don’t think I’ll see how many lies I could tell today. No. He may get some wrong information that a staffer gives him. He may get some facts twisted up some time. But he’s not purposely out there lying, misleading people. But this lady is, she’s misleading people, and she was wrong. And I would hope that whoever the powers that be would, somebody in the cathedral who doesn’t have a political agenda or a a sexual political agenda, but just somebody who would be there to open up the word of God and to encourage people to worship God. This lady was, I don’t know, she — well, I think Trump said the service was a little bit boring and they could have done better. He’s right.”

BROOKS: “Think he was.”