Morning Joe Guest: Trump Used Otto Warmbier’s Parents For ‘His Own Self-Interest’
Morning Joe guest Susan Del Percio critcized President Donald Trump Friday morning for his defense of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Trump claimed he believed Kim when the North Korean leader denied any knowledge of the mistreatment of American Otto Warmbier, who later died on his return to the US.
“And Susan Del Percio, you, too, another Republican. Certainly in the past, I don’t know about now, but we grew up believing that the United States, as Reagan said, was a city shining brightly on the hill for all the world to see, that we were the example to the world when it came it freedom, that our organizing principle was freedom, that we stood up against tyrants, that we learned our lesson at Munich,” host Joe Scarborough said.
“And yet, if you’re an American whose loved one is beaten to death in North Korea, you can know, this President will not stand up to a tyrant. If you know someone who was assassinated in Russia, a political opponent or somebody that crossed Vladimir Putin’s path, you know Prresident Trump will take the word of Vladimir Putin over his own Intel community.
“And of course, a journalist, a Washington Post journalist is killed, carved up with a bone saw while he is still alive. Donald Trump says he believes the murderer and then his son-in-law goes over there to continue their dear, close relationship. This is not the Republican Party of our youth. Hell, it’s not the America that we grew up in, where you have a president, a commander-in-chief that embraces tyrants and has utter contempt for our NATO allies and people who were elected democratically.”
“That’s right, Joe,” Del Percio said. “And the President is – one thing he does, is he acts out of his own self-interests. He did not go to Hanoi representing the United States of America. He went there representing himself. He thinks that he can do these deals one on one.”
“And he one thing that has just been nagging at me since we heard his comments about Otto Warmbier is, did he ever think for a moment about his parents?” Del Percio asked. “He took his parents and showed them around and he used it to his own self-interest and he was out there basically telling his parents – Otto’s parents, saying your suffering, it wasn’t at the hands of North Korea’s leader. We put faith in … I trust him.”
“I just can’t imagine how they must feel this morning and yesterday hearing those comments because this is a president with no humanity, with no empathy and no decency,” she said. “That’s how he crafts his policies, that’s how he can go and send Jared on his mission to Saudi Arabia, that’s how he can continue to look people in the eye and say he’s out there trying to help make America great again. He is not trying to do anything of the sort. He is trying to make himself matter and relevant and he does it and makes this country suffer, unfortunately not just for the days to come, or the weeks to come but for the years to come.”
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
