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On Thursday, a guest in the Oval Office fainted during Donald Trump’s announcement about lowering the cost of weight-loss drugs, causing the event to be cut short. Later that day, an image of Trump standing idly by as those around him attended to the man went viral.
The photo resonated with Lawrence O’Donnell, who said on Thursday’s “The Last Word” that it showcased the president’s instinct to “completely ignore a person in need.”
“He looked and then turned away,” O’Donnell said. “And then Donald Trump, a person without a single sympathetic instinct, stood staring straight ahead, as if pretending that whatever suffering the man behind him was experiencing wasn’t happening.”
O’Donnell ripped Trump for his reaction and said his predecessors — Democrat and Republican — would have handled the situation differently. “We know what Joe Biden would have done. We know what Barack Obama would have done. We know what George W. Bush would have done. They would have gotten physically involved in reaching down to help that person,” he suggested. “They wouldn’t turn away.”
“The Last Word” host said Trump’s reaction to the situation was emblematic of a much larger issue within his administration: the tendency to turn its back on those in need.
“Donald Trump did that today with a man on the floor in the Oval Office, and he did it today with millions of American air travelers whose planes he is threatening,” O’Donnell said, referencing the hundreds of flights that were canceled due to the ongoing government shutdown.
“And he did it today with millions of Americans who are worried about their ability to afford food because Donald Trump is trying to take their [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits away,” he added.
Because of that, O’Donnell argued that the image of the president in the Oval Office should become “the Trump second-term official portrait.”
“A portrait of Donald Trump standing mindlessly staring, head straight ahead, wondering when he will next get to play golf, maybe, while a man’s feet are in the air behind him, being picked up by other people who have the capacity to care about another human being in distress,” he said.
You can watch O’Donnell’s full commentary in the clip at the top of the page.