A Virginia congressman is coming under fire for a tone-deaf remark made to a woman in jail who has a drug addiction.
Rep. Dave Brat was visiting an addiction support group at the Chesterfield County Jail in his home state and listening to an inmate speak about the struggles she would face when she was released.
The Republican lawmaker’s response suggested he is suffering from a severe empathy deficit.
“You think you’re having a hard time ― I’ve got $5 million worth of negative ads coming at me,” he said, according to NPR reporter Ben Paviour[1]. “How do you think I’m feeling? Nothing’s easy. For anybody.”
Brat, who took down then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor[2] (R-Va.) in a 2014 primary, is now in a close battle for re-election[3] with Democrat Abigail Spanberger. He apparently felt it was important for the incarcerated members of an addiction support group to understand just how hard his own life is.
“You think I’m a congressman, ‘Oh, life’s easy, this guy’s off having steaks every day,’” he said. “Baloney. I’ve got a daughter, she’s got to deal with that crap on TV every day.”
“So it’s tough,” Brat continued. “No one out there’s got some easy life. Right?”
You can hear the exchange in this tweet:
Brat may have had a sudden moment of clarity because he eventually acknowledged that the challenges these prisoners faced might be a teensy bit more difficult than his.
“And you’ve got it harder,” he acknowledged, according to Paviour. “I’m not dismissing that. You’ve got some fierce, real anxiety with coming up with a job or whatever. And what you’ve got to find is a support system.”
Brat’s challenger condemned his remarks, calling them “an affront to every person in recovery and the