Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Live With Craig Melvin,” in the aftermath of two mass shootings, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) accused President Donald Trump of being incapable of feeling empathy.
Ryan said, “I got to tell you, I mean, this is one of the most disingenuous human beings I’ve ever watched in my entire life. He gives a speech about unity a couple days ago and last night he’s blasting Beto O’Rourke. I mean, he just — he’s disingenuous. he doesn’t keep his word. He is in it for the TV show. And he’s not connecting and understanding what’s happening in the country right now. You mentioned the anger, the fear, people are afraid to go to Walmart now. People are afraid to send their kids to school. Kids think they’re going to get killed in school. I mean, let’s just stop for 30 seconds and think about what we’re doing to our kids and then have the president in no way, shape, or form be a unifier of trying to pull people together.”
He continued, “I almost feel like he’s incapable of feeling, you know, that compassion that is needed that Barack Obama, George W. Bush had to really connect with people in their pain. And the whole country’s in pain now and we have a president who doesn’t know how to connect with people in pain and in many ways makes it worse. So I don’t even know what the advice would be. Even if he said something, chances are he’s going to revert back later tonight when he gets on his Twitter feed or tomorrow morning and cause more and more division. And that’s really the concern we all have.”
He added, “I mean, you know, this is bar stool analysis here. I feel like he’s incapable of feeling empathy for people and, you know, like I said, I’m not here to give the guy, you know, an examination here, but I feel like he’s incapable of feeling empathy. I don’t think he deeply understands compassion. He himself said he never cried. I mean, I’ve cried 50 times since I heard this. Being in Dayton I’m sure you’ve been moved too just being there. How do you not feel that emotion that people are going through?”
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