President Donald Trump has "the empathy of a cockroach," CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd said Monday on CNN's "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer.
Mudd was reacting to Trump's comments about the four Green Berets who were killed in Niger during an ambush 12 days ago.
The president said he had written personal letters to the families and he had planned to call them later this week. He also incorrectly stated his predecessors had not written or called the families of slain American troops during their tenures.
"Boy, it's a tough day for the president? How about for the families who accepted a child or a father or a spouse home in a casket? It's not a tough day for them?" Mudd asked. "This guy has the empathy of a cockroach. From the day after his inauguration when he showed up at my former agency, the CIA, in front of the wall of fallen heroes, and spoke about the size of his inauguration. Fast-forwarding now nine months, and he can't figure out his responsibility not only as the commander-in-chief, but as the consoler-in-chief."
Trump said the toughest phone calls to make were "the calls where this happens, soldiers are killed."
He then said other presidents "did not call, they would write letters, and some presidents didn't do anything."
When pressed on his claim, Trump backtracked.
"I don't know if he did," he said of former President Barack Obama. "I was told that he didn't often, and a lot of presidents don't. They write letters. I do, I do a combination of both."
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