On Sunday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” 2020 Democratic presidential candidate former Housing Secretary Julian Castro complained that Republicans “get off” on President Donald Trump’s “cruelty.”

Host Joy Reid said, “You mentioned Ben Carson. We were going to mention the back and forth between himself and Congresswoman Maxine Waters where he’s got a plan to essentially drive people out of the public —or drive homeless people out of where they’re trying to take shelter, and he went after Congresswoman Waters and called her shameless and a hypocrite on the issue. She was saying what you’re trying to do is cruelty. The cruelty aspect is a big deal. As a presidential candidate—”

Castro interjected, “I think, for whatever reason, on the other side of the aisle, on the Republican side of the aisle, people get off on that. They like — I mean, look at Trump at the debates in 2016. There’s a certain element within that base that seems to love it when people are cruel to one another. And I don’t know why that is. You know, I don’t think that that’s the — all of the people in that party or that side of the aisle by any means but, clearly, Trump has built up his political record and reputation, and this administration has continued a record of cruelty toward migrants, toward people who are poor, and there’s a certain amount of that base that seems to love it.”

“And, you know, I don’t understand it,” he continued. “But I can say that we’re going to move in a completely different direction where we build an America that’s not based on cruelty. That’s based on compassion and common sense. That’s the kind of country that we need.”

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