MSNBC's Melvin Scolds: Trump 'Incapable...Unwilling to Show Empathy,' Unlike Obama

August 7th, 2019 1:44 PM

It’s almost as if liberal journalists were all reading from the same Democrat talking points. MSNBC Live host Craig Melvin liked what one 2020 Democrat candidate said about President Trump’s response to mass shootings, so much, that he repeated the attack line several times on the rest of his program.

Rep.Tim Ryan (D-OH) was making the rounds on cable news Wednesday, when he stopped by MSNBC to complain Trump lacked the empathy gene that presidents before him had.

[H]e’s incapable of feeling that compassion that is needed that Barack Obama had, that Bill Clinton had, that 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.

In response, Melvin gushed, “Congressman, do you think he's incapable or do you think he's just unwilling?”

Afterwards, the MSNBC host continued psychoanalyzing the president with his other, anti-Trump guests. To Tim Miller, former spokesperson for Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign, Melvin asked, again, "Going back to what Tim Ryan said to me a few moments ago, Tim, do you think that this is a president who is incapable of empathy or showing empathy? Or do you think that this is a President who is consistently unwilling to do that?" 

“Both, probably. He’s certainly not willing,” Miller replied.

To end his show, Melvin again invited a never-Trump MSNBC Republican to compare the President’s response to his predecessor’s response to mass shootings.

Playing a clip of President Obama singing "Amazing Grace," Melvin gushed to former Newsweek editor and presidential historian, Jon Meacham:

There's a man singing "Amazing Grace" to the country in the wake of a mass shooting. When you compare President Obama's response to these horrible acts of violence, whether Charleston, whether its Sandy Hook, and then you compare this president's response, Jon, this current president, is he incapable of it, or is he unwilling to do it?

It wasn’t just MSNBC Tim Ryan was repeating this line to. He attacked Trump as incapable of empathy on CNN just one hour earlier. Maybe he got it from Al Sharpton, who said today on Morning Joe, that Trump was “incapable” of “humanity.”