Bitter loser Hillary Clinton is still being asked about talking about former and potentially future President Donald Trump, who she believes will be the Republican nominee again in 2024. She recently gave an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. While the full interview will air on Monday, the network played an excerpt on Thursday night. In it, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate wonders when Trump supporters will "break with him," going on to add, "because at some point, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members, but something needs to happen."
Amanpour had been asking Clinton about "pragmatic Republicans," and if they could perhaps form "a coalition" with Democrats. Clinton offered that "there's clearly a common sense, sane part of the Republican caucus in the House," pointing to those who voted with Democrats last Saturday to keep the government open. "But I think they are intimidated," she added. "They oftentimes say and do things, which they know better than to say or do. And it will require us defeating those most extreme measures and the people who promote them in order to try to get to some common ground where people can again work together. That's the way it used to be," she said, and it only got worse from there.
"I mean, we had very strong partisan 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," she continued, complaining partisanship before she went on to directly speak about Trump and how his supporters supposedly need to be re-educated.
"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, criminal actions," she said. "And when do they break with him? Because at some point, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members, but something needs to happen." Amanpour, who had been nodding along throughout the interview, laughed in response.
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As concerning as it is that Clinton would say such a thing about her fellow Americans, it's not the only issue here. Given that she herself went on to say "I think, sadly, he will still likely be the nominee," Trump clearly still has that credibility with somebody.
"And how do you do that? Because you said you have to defeat them by defeating their leader. Their leader is Donald Trump," Amanpour wondered. "Even you have said that you expect him to be the Republican nominee. How does this change at all?"
Clinton stressed the need to defeat Trump in 2024. "At this point, I think, sadly, he will still likely be the nominee and we have to defeat him. And we have to defeat those who are the election deniers, as we did in 2020 and 2022. And we have to just be smarter about how we are trying to empower the right people inside the Republican Party," she offered, although she herself is likely to have zero credibility within the party.
Later on in the clip, she went on to denigrate Trump supporters further. As Amanpour asked about a rematch from 2020 between Trump and President Joe Biden, Clinton continued by equating Trump supporters with cult members.
"It's a classic tale of an authoritarian populist who really has a grip on the emotional psychological needs and desires of a portion of the population. And the base of the Republican Party, for whatever combination of reasons--and it is emotional and psychological--sees in him someone who speaks for them," she said, still not grasping why it is she lost to Trump back in 2016.
Lumping Trump supporters together as xenophones, homophobes, racists, and misogynists, she went on to claim "they are determined that they will continue to vote for him, attend his rallies, wear his merchandise, because, for whatever reason, he and his very negative, nasty form of politics resonates with them. Maybe they don't like migrants. Maybe they don't like gay people or black people or the woman who got the promotion at work they didn't get."
"Whatever the reason, you know, make America great again was a bid for nostalgia to return to a place where people could be in charge of their lives, feel empowered, say what they want, insult whoever came in their way. And that was really attractive to a significant portion of the Republican base. So, it is like a cult," she continued.
"And somebody has to break that momentum. That's why I believe Joe Biden will defeat him," she offered towards the end of the clip. It will be worth seeing if the full interview describes how a not insignificant amount of Democrats want somebody other than Biden to be the nominee.
Hillary Clinton just had another "basket of deplorables" moment LIVE on CNN, only 100 times more dystopian fantasing about the "end" of MAGA and the return of the DC Uniparty:
— Danny De Urbina (@dannydeurbina) October 6, 2023
“Sadly, so many MAGA extremists take their orders from Donald Trump… at some point, there needs to be… pic.twitter.com/tLKhtakq6D
There's no cleaning up the severity of such concerning remarks. Remember how Clinton referred to Trump supporters as a "basket of deplorables," which she only sort of apologized for? This goes beyond that. She was also running for president at the time, and those remarks could have very well been what helped elect Trump.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi similarly smeared Trump supporters in late August, dismissing them as "people we would probably never get" and offering "some who are supporting him who are just afraid."
Will the full interview between Clinton and Amanpour be any better? Or perhaps worse? We'll see. Not only did Amanpour not give any pushback, she just laughed along with Clinton. Then again, this is the same Christiane Amanpour was among those who called out then CNN CEO Chris Licht because he dared to defend the network holding a town hall with Trump. This was while she was accepting an award and serving as the commencement speaker for the Columbia Journalism School's graduation ceremony back in May.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who is currently in second place behind Trump in the polls, was asked about Clinton's comments while on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday morning. "Look, these are patriotic Americans" who "want to see the country do well," DeSantis said about such voters, as part of his response in being asked how he would distinguish himself from Trump without alienating his supporters.
"Hillary Clinton," "Re-education" and "Deprogramming" have been trending on X, all as a result of the interview clip.
DESANTIS tears into Hillary Clinton for attacking Trump supporters as "cult members": "These are patriotic Americans."
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) October 6, 2023
Most Republicans "appreciate" what Trump did but "also understand that he's got limitations in terms of his electability. He would be a lame duck on day one if… pic.twitter.com/LMW9M0YL3F
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