“I wanted to counter, as gently as I could, with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community,” she said.
“He has this moment now where he feels charged and empowered to do what he feels called to do, and I wanted to say.
There is room for mercy,” Budde remarked when she explained why she talked with Trump. A more comprehensive compassion is possible.
“We don’t need to portray with a broad cloth in the harshest of terms some of the most vulnerable people in our society, who are in fact our neighbors and our friends,” she said.
