ABC’s Dowd: Trump Is a ‘Weak Person’s Idea of What a Strong Person Is’

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” former the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign and ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd called President Donald Trump “a weak person’s idea of what a strong person is,” adding, “His idea of a strong person is bullying people.”

Partial transcript as follows:

RADDATZ: I know want to turn to another event this week, that’s getting a lot of attention. President Trump spoke to law enforcement and had these words for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Like, when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put the hand over — like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: And the comments are pouring in from police departments all over the country. The New York Police Department to suggest that police officers apply any standard in the use of force other than what is reasonable is irresponsible, unprofessional, sends the wrong message. Boston Police Department, as a police department, we’re committed to helping people not harming them. The statements go on and on — Seattle, Philadelphia, Houston, New Orleans — Matt Dowd.

DOWD: It’s hard to believe that I can continually be shocked by the president’s behavior. But I am continually shocked by the president’s behavior.

First, there are so many people around the country that intersect with law enforcement that already have this fear that they’re going to be mistreated, how the police would act towards them. And the idea that he would celebrate that mistreatment is amazing to me.

I think it’s a broader problem where all of this stuff connects, his statements there. His statements at the Boy Scouts. His empowering somebody like…

RADDATZ: Statement he politicized a Boy Scouts event. And the head of Boy Scouts had to come out and apologize.

DOWD: How he acted in the midst of that around a bunch of 17 and 18-year-olds. And in Anthony Scaramucci being — on his behavior, and being empowered in that behavior.

Donald Trump has a bizarre view of what it means to be a strong person, a bizarre view of what it means to be a strong person in this society, especially a strong man.

To me, Donald Trump in his actions are a weak person’s idea of what a strong person is. The way you commit violence, how you act towards others, all of that. His idea of a strong person is bullying people. His idea of a strong police officer is mistreating people that they — apprehend. And so, to me, it’s a much broader sense. He is somehow been launched himself back in the 13th Century about what he views as a strong person.

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