‘Sadistic and sociopathic’: NYC council speaker blasts Trump’s ‘pathological’ cruelty toward Puerto Rico

Melissa Mark-Viverito, the speaker of the New York City Council, blasted President Donald Trump's cruelty toward the hurricane-ravaged U.S. territory where she was born.

The Puerto Rican-born Mark-Viverito appeared Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to discuss the ongoing relief efforts after Hurricane Maria -- which Trump threatened to end last week in a tweet.

Host Joe Scarborough said he was reluctant to view politics through race, but he said it was nearly impossible to escape the conclusion that the president was bigoted against Latinos -- including the U.S. citizens suffering in Puerto Rico.

"Is it not hard to look at Donald Trump's history, how he launched his campaign for president of the United States, how he has acted every step of the way and look at the uneven treatment between Texas and Puerto Rico, Florida and Puerto Rico," Scarborough said, "the rest of the country and Puerto Rico -- and not say, that this unequal treatment has to do with race?"

Co-host Willie Geist agreed the difference was clear, and Mark-Viverito suggested even more sinistermotivations.

"I don't understand what is going through the mind," Mark-Viverito said. "This is pathological behavior -- it is sadistic, it is sociopathic. I'm very serious, this is a level of lack of empathy that just is egregious, so we have to call it out for what it is."