Hillary Clinton says “MAGA extremists” are to blame for the dysfunction in the House of Representatives, and suggested there “needs to be a formal deprogramming” of “extreme” Donald Trump supporters in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
The House narrowly avoided a government shutdown last week, however, this week Kevin McCarthy was removed from his role as Speaker of the House. The vote to pick McCarthy’s replacement will be held on Tuesday.
During the interview, Clinton said: “You saw the number of Republicans who voted along with Democrats to keep the government open, so there’s clearly a common sense, sane part of the Republican caucus in the House.”
“But I think they are intimidated,” continued Clinton. “They oftentimes, you know, say and do things which they know better than to say or do.”
Clinton noted that in order to be productive in Congress, we must defeat the “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 reflected.
While she noted that there were “very strong partisans in both parties,” who had “very bitter battles over all kinds of thing,” there didn’t used to be “this little tail of extremism wagging the dog of the Republican Party as it is today.”
“So many of those MAGA extremists, take their marching orders from Donald Trump,” said Clinton, “who has no credibility left by any measure.”
Trump is “only in it for himself,” said the former secretary of state.
“At some point,” Clinton said, “maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members.”
A bit later in the interview, Clinton noted “At this point, I think, sadly, he will still be the nominee and we have to defeat him.”
Watch the full interview above via YouTube.
