WATCH: Ari Fleischer Says Trump’s Harvey Visit Lacks ‘Empathy’

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By Ari Feldman August 30, 2017

Ari Fleischer, press secretary under President George W. Bush, told Fox News last night that Trump’s visit to Houston amid the catastrophic flooding crippling the city lacked a certain something: empathy.

“There was something missing from what President Trump said ― I hope he’ll say it later today ― but that’s the empathy for the people who suffered,” Fleisher said Tuesday. “That, in my opinion, should have been the first thing he should have said was that his heart goes out to those people in Houston who are going through this and that the government is here to help them to recover from this.”

“These are the individual human stories that stir us and make us connected as Americans ― that when calamity hits, we help one another,” he said.

Trump’s visit drew fire when he started a speech by praising the size of the crowd outside a firehouse in Corpus Christi.

Steve Perez: 60, 34 year veteran of Houston PD, died in floodwaters today. Trump: “What a crowd. What a turnout.”pic.twitter.com/BaBw0J3wwU

— Holly O’Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) August 29, 2017

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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