Hillary Clinton on Trump’s Response to NYC Terror Attack: ‘He Just Doesn’t Have Any Empathy’
Hillary Clinton made another stop on her book tour on The Daily Show on Wednesday (Nov. 1) — the first time she's appeared on the late-night talk show since Trevor Noah took over hosting duties — and naturally President Trump was a hot topic.
Trump was criticized for "politicizing" the New York City terror attack on Tuesday (Oct. 31), which left at least eight people dead and multiple wounded, by tweeting in part that the suspect "came into our country through what is called the 'Diversity Visa Lottery Program,' a Chuck Schumer beauty." When asked how she feels about the president's response to the attack and similar tragedies, Clinton said, "What you want in a president, is [someone who will try] to bring a country together, talk about what happened with the event they're concerned about but not point fingers, not scapegoat and not try to set Americans against each other."
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"He just doesn't have any empathy," she declared, adding, "You can disagree with someone over all kinds of partisan issues, but you want a president who can try to put himself into the shoes, the feelings of someone else, and he has not been able to do that."
Noah also questioned her in response to news last week that her campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that would ultimately end up in the Steele dossier, which included allegations about Trump's ties to Russia.
The late-night host asked the former Democratic presidential candidate if she thinks there is a difference between her group funding the research and Donald Trump's campaign working with the Russians to influence the election. "Of course there is," Clinton responded. "I think most serious people understand that."
She explained, "This was research started by a Republican donor during the Republican primary and then when Trump got the nomination for the Republican party the people doing it came to my campaign lawyer and said, 'Would you like us to continue it?' And he said yes. He's an experienced lawyer, he knows what the law is, he knows what opposition research is."
Clinton said that from her perspective, the bigger problem, which she writes about in her book, is that the American people were not aware of the FBI's investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia until after the election.
"I know that voters should have had that information, that's something that may have influenced some people," she said, adding, "But the fact of the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign should have come out."
Clinton's appearance comes on the heels of news earlier this week that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election resulted in indictments for President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts, as well as a guilty plea by former adviser George Papadopoulos to interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the campaign.
Clinton's book What Happened was released Sept. 12 via CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster.
Watch a clip of Clinton's appearance below.
This article originally appeared on THR.com .
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