Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has drawn the ire of former President Donald Trump and many Republicans after comments she made about “MAGA extremists” and the need to “deprogram” them.
The incident happened during an interview that aired Thursday on CNN when she was asked former House Speaker and Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy being removed from his position by a right wing group of 8 Republicans who voted along with all House Democrats.
“I mean, we had very strong partisans in both parties in the past and we had very bitter battles over all kinds of things: gun control, and climate change, and the economy, and taxes. But there wasn’t this little tail of extremism wagging the dog of the Republican Party as it is today, and sadly, so many of those extremists, those MAGA extremists, take their marching orders from Donald Trump, who has no credibility left by any measure. He’s only in it for himself. He’s now defending himself in civil actions and criminal actions, and when do they break with him?” she said before talking about “a formal deprogramming.”
“You know, because at some point, you know, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members. But something needs to happen,” she said.
Hours after the video aired former President Trump’s team sent an email titled “Statement On Hillary Clinton’s Re-Education Camp Proposal.”
“President Trump has said countless times that they are only coming after him, because he stands in their way from coming after you — and Hillary Clinton just confirmed that to be true. Tens of millions of Americans will reject the Democrat Party’s re-education camp agenda in November 2024 when we make Donald Trump the 47th President of the United States.” — Make America Great Again Inc. spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
The comment also received backlash on X, formerly Twitter.
“A line was just crossed that can’t be walked back. This rhetoric will increase and the Democrats will try to convince their voters that supporting gulags is the virtuous thing to do for the community. In a sane country every single elected Democrat would be asked about this statement tomorrow and condemn it or be run out of political life for agreeing with the forced re-education of citizens. Instead no media will ask because they’re arms of the Democrat regime and if one slips through the cracks to ask, Democrats will agree with her. Wise people with integrity will make this their motto in the coming years: ‘When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty’. We will never bow down to these communists,” former Republican Congressional candidate Robby Starbuck said.
“JUST NOW: Hillary Clinton on CNN says Trump supporters must be ‘formally deprogrammed’ former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said before quoting the former New York Senator. “Hillary Deplorable Moment times 10!”
Days ago Newsweek reported that the FBI is focusing its attention on right wing extremists as the 224 presidential election approaches.
The federal government believes that the threat of violence and major civil disturbances around the 2024 U.S. presidential election is so great that it has quietly created a new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump’s army of MAGA followers.
The challenge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the primary federal agency charged with law enforcement, is to pursue and prevent what it calls domestic terrorism without direct reference to political parties or affiliations—even though the vast majority of its current “anti-government” investigations are of Trump supporters, according to classified data obtained by Newsweek.
“The FBI is in an almost impossible position,” says a current FBI official, who requested anonymity to discuss highly sensitive internal matters. The official said that the FBI is intent on stopping domestic terrorism and any repeat of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. But the Bureau must also preserve the Constitutional right of all Americans to campaign, speak freely and protest the government. By focusing on former president Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters, the official said, the Bureau runs the risk of provoking the very anti-government activists that the terrorism agencies hope to counter.