The Quotation of the Week (May 17 - 23, 2020)

Quotations on U.S. President's Leadership 
and Empathy During Times of Crisis and Grief

• “I can think of many presidents whose finest hours included times of mourning. In these and other times, the president binds us as a nation by acknowledging and giving voice to our shared sense of loss, grief and pain and pointing the way to better times ahead. [President Donald] Trump hasn’t shown himself capable of this, in my view.” –David Greenberg (presidential scholar at Rutgers University, USA)

• “It takes a strong man to open his heart. But it also makes a very good and memorable president [who exhibits compassion and empathy].” –Craig Shirley, a Republican operative and President Reagan biographer

• “In virtually all of F.D.R.’s [Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s] talks, he played a pastoral role. He was always empathetic, and even when he was talking about economic dislocation, unemployment, etc., he introduced spiritual notes.” –Susan Dunn, a Williams College professor and author of several books on Roosevelt

• “He [President George W. Bush] was really passionate about connecting with people especially because he took this type of tragedy so personally. He used that passion to express his remorse and sadness, but also to connect with people to make them feel better. He would say it wasn’t about him. It was about the presidency and he wanted to share the presidency with them.” –Eric Draper, the White House photographer who accompanied President George W. Bush

• “In five years of watching him, I’ve never seen [President Donald] Trump display a shred of empathy or grace towards another human being. I’m not sure he has that capacity, at least he’s never shown it in public.” –Jon Favrean, chief speechwriter of President Barack Obama

• “…His [President Donald Trump’s] role should show hope and inspiration, but I think it should show compassion. There are a lot of people that are experiencing a lot of fear, so I do think it has a time and a place.” –David Mangan, one of the survivors of coronavirus, and a pharmaceutical sales representative from Hot Springs, Arkansas

--Quotations compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Source: "Amid a Rising Death Toll, Trump Leaves the Grievieving 

to Others" by Peter Baker, The New York Times (April 30, 2020)