Tuesday, MSNBC contributor and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson reacted to President Donald Trump having police use tear gas and flashbangs on peaceful protesters so he could get to Lafayette Park and threatening to utilize military to contain the protests, some of which have turned violent.
Robinson on “Morning Joe” criticized Trump’s lack of empathy at this time and said he is now “more worried” than he has “ever been about the future of this democracy” because he fears what this president could do with the Insurrection Act at his disposal.
“This just in, Donald Trump is a liar,” Robinson declared. “He said in his remarks, ‘I’m an ally of all peaceful protesters,’ as he had peaceful protesters attacked with flashbangs and tear gas and rubber bullets. We arrived at this crisis moment because of the long succession of police killings of African-Americans that people finally got fed up with and said, ‘No more.’ You know, governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed and consent is withdrawn for that, from not just African-Americans protesting, but if you look at the protest crowds, they are remarkably diverse in every imaginable way. And people just poured out to say, ‘Enough.’ And so, of course … this crisis is real and that we, as a nation, need to do something about this now because time is up.”
He continued, “And we are deeply unfortunate to have the worst possible president at this moment because he is not capable of that sort of empathy. He is not capable of feeling anyone else’s pain except his own. And so the result is the display we saw yesterday. And so, you know, the 1807 Insurrection Act, well, if George H. W. Bush used it during the L.A. riots, and in the hands of George H.W. Bush, it was OK. It was OK because he understands the idea of America in a way that President Trump does not. So in the hands of Donald Trump, this is extremely dangerous. And I … have always shied away from hyperbole about, you know, dictatorial rule and whether American democracy and have always believed we’ll get past this, we’ll get over this, we are stronger and more resilient. But there are powerful tools in the hands of any president. And other presidents have not used them because they have known that it was beyond the pale to do so. Donald Trump doesn’t know that, doesn’t care about that. And so, I am more worried than I have ever been about the future of this democracy.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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