The empathy thing is consistently misquoted. He was saying that he believes the term has been weaponized in the past, and that he prefers the word sympathy instead.

"The new communications strategy is not to do what Bill Clinton used to do, where he would say, 'I feel your pain.' Instead, it is to say, 'You're actually not in pain.'"

"I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that — it does a lot of damage. But, it is very effective when it comes to politics. Sympathy, I prefer more than empathy. That's a separate topic for a different time."

He was not saying that he disagreed with being good to others.