Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Deadline: White House, MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch declared that many Donald Trump supporters may be "jerks" who "really suck as human beings" because they oppose some of the restrictions aimed at restraining the coronavirus pandemic.
At 4:50 p.m. Eastern, host Nicolle Wallace began the segment lauding President-elect Joe Biden's history pf speaking empathetically after massive tragedies, and played clips of him reacting to the 9/11 attacks. She then went to Deutsch and commented: "Donny, it's almost eerie to hear someone talk like that. We are so starved of this sort of language of grief and loss."
Deutsch began by talking up Biden's ability to run the country during a crisis:
One of the traits of a leader is three things -- it's honesty, it's empathy and it's having a vision. It's an honesty to confront a problem and say we have a problem and say here's the loss and here's the problem. The empathy is the most important part, and "I understand and I can feel it. I feel you." And you feel that from him.
He then suggested that there are too many Trump supporters -- whom he derided as "the ungreatest generation" -- who will not be open to heeding a President Biden's attempt to lead during the pandemic:
Here's the problem. In one of your earlier segments, there was a -- you were showing a crowd at a Trump rally or an anti-corona rally, and somebody held up a sign that said "99 percent survival rate is not an emergency," which -- that's the mindset of somebody, if you were in a movie theater with 100 people and one person was going to die, the other 99 shouldn't care -- shouldn't huddle around. And that's the problem in this country, is that we have a part of this country called "the ungreatest generation" that is a "me" culture, and "If it doesn't affect me, I don't give a damn." I mean, that sign says it all.
Complaining that some Americans are too selfish and "can't be led," he added:
And that's the problem. Even if you have Biden's leadership and it has those three traits, if you have a huge part of this population -- and we do ... And what it comes down to is, certain people can't be led. If you have enough people who don't give a -- don't give a damn unless it affects them, it's hard to solve that problem, and we have a segment that is "the ungreatest generation," and that's the sadness that we have here that can't feel -- can't look at that number, 3,000, and go, "Those are people." They can't -- they can't process it. If it doesn't affect them, they can't process it. That's sad.
After Wallace responded that she had difficulty believing that so many people could be uncaring about others, Deutsch further went negative by personally attacking the morality of those who oppose more anti-pandemic restrictions:
But maybe we have to get to a point that maybe there are 50 million jerks in this country -- maybe that's the sad truth, and how do we manage that? Because Joe Biden is doing everything right. And when you see that sign, and when you see -- maybe there's a chunk of us that really suck as human beings. Maybe that's a reality.
This episode of MSNBC's Deadline: White House was sponsored in part by Progressive. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC
Deadline: White House
December 10, 2020
4:51 p.m. Eastern
NICOLLE WALLACE: Donny, it's almost eerie to hear someone talk like that. We are so starved of this sort of language of grief and loss.
DONNY DEUTSCH, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: One of the traits of a leader is three things -- it's honesty, it's empathy and it's having a vision. It's an honesty to confront a problem and say we have a problem and say here's the loss and here's the problem. The empathy is the most important part, and "I understand and I can feel it. I feel you." And you feel that from him. And the third part is having a vision about how we're going to solve the problem.
Here's the problem. In one of your earlier segments, there was a -- you were showing a crowd at a Trump rally or an anti-corona rally, and somebody held up a sign that said "99 percent survival rate is not an emergency," which -- that's the mindset of somebody, if you were in a movie theater with 100 people and one person was going to die, the other 99 shouldn't care -- shouldn't huddle around. And that's the problem in this country, is that we have a part of this country called "the ungreatest generation" that is a "me" culture, and "If it doesn't affect me, I don't give a damn." I mean, that sign says it all.
And that's the problem. Even if you have Biden's leadership and it has those three traits, if you have a huge part of this population -- and we do -- and I see the sadness in your face today, Nicolle. You look like you're going to cry. I feel the same way. And what it comes down to is, certain people can't be led. If you have enough people who don't give a -- don't give a damn unless it affects them, it's hard to solve that problem, and we have a segment that is "the ungreatest generation," and that's the sadness that we have here that can't feel -- can't look at that number, 3,000, and go, "Those are people." They can't -- they can't process it. If it doesn't affect them, they can't process it. That's sad.
NICOLLE WALLACE: But I can't imagine being in a movie theater, Donny, and if one person started choking, everybody wouldn't get up and call 911. I just refuse to believe that that's who we are. I think there is a chunk of the country that's been fed lies, and I'm not taking out the responsibility for believing the lies and being attracted to the lies. I know a lot of people who are high on the lies myself in my own life, but I refuse to believe that we can't be led -- at least some of us -- to a somewhat brighter place. It is the absence of any forum for feeling the loss. Go ahead.
DEUTSCH: But maybe we have to get to a point that maybe there are 50 million jerks in this country -- maybe that's the sad truth, and how do we manage that? Because Joe Biden is doing everything right. And when you see that sign, and when you see -- maybe there's a chunk of us that really suck as human beings. Maybe that's a reality.
