Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale believes President Donald Trump should have shown “public empathy” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Parscale noted during an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum what he saw as Trump’s biggest “policy error” this year as the president sought re-election.
After MacCallum pointed out loss in support for Trump from some voters, Parscale said, “I think it was a decision on COVID, to go for opening the economy versus public empathy.”
“I think a young family with a young child — who, one, were scared to take them back to school — wanted to see an empathetic president and an empathetic Republican Party,” he added.
Parscale continued to say that he said this “multiple times” but Trump “chose a different path.”
“I don’t think anything’s wrong with this. I love him but we had a difference on this,” he said. “I thought we should have public empathy. I think people were scared.”
He later added, “I think if he would have been publicly empathetic he would have won by a landslide there. I think he could have leaned into it instead of run away from it.”
When pressed by MacCallum if he thinks the “biggest error” was Trump’s lack of empathy, Parscale said he thought it was the biggest “policy error.”
Watch Parscale’s comments below:
During Parscale’s interview with MacCallum he was asked about stepping away from the Trump campaign. He was demoted to a senior campaign adviser in July and stepped away from the campaign in September. He told MacCallum he did not leave the campaign, but rather was “removed.”
He also said he had not spoken to Trump lately, saying, “It is pretty hurtful, but it’s probably just as much my fault as his. I love that family. And I gave every inch of my life to him. Every inch.”
