There are so many heartbreaking stories about immigrant families at the border, but Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray yesterday highlighted an especially brutal example, pointing to a 10-year-old girl with Down’s syndrome who was recently separated from her mother and brother.
When former DNC adviser Zac Petkanas reflected on this girl’s plight during a Fox News segment yesterday, he was interrupted.
In the middle of his comments, fellow guest Corey Lewandowski cut in. “Womp womp,” President Trump’s former campaign manager said, a dismissive trombone-like sound effect.
“Did you just say ‘womp womp’ to a 10-year-old with Down syndrome?” Petkanas shot back.
Yes, actually, he did.
At least publicly, Trump World’s posture is one of furrowed brow. The president says he “hates” his own policy, for example, and while that doesn’t really make sense — he can end the practice whenever he wants — many White House officials have appeared in the media to express sorrow over what they characterize as an unfortunate necessity.
But there was Corey Lewandowski, lending his voice to the kind of cruel indifference rarely heard in polite company. The presidential confidant appeared on national television to make clear he simply does not care about a young girl with special needs, who’s done nothing wrong, and who’s being kept from her family by the United States government. Before the White House’s allies dismiss Lewandowski as a peripheral figure of limited relevance, let’s not forget that, just last month, he joined Vice President Mike Pence’s political action committee, Great America. He also recently bragged to friends that he enjoys “unfettered” access to Donald Trump, who reportedly welcomed Lewandowski to a recent dinner at the White House residence. He is, by all accounts, a Trump insider. He’s also now the poster child for gratuitous apathy toward suffering immigrant children. A reporter recently asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “Don’t you have empathy?” For some in the president’s orbit, the answer is unfortunately clear.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
