(RightWing.org) – Hillary Clinton’s decision to insult conservatives by calling them “a basket of deplorables” might not be what cost her the 2016 election, but it certainly didn’t help. You’d think such an experienced political operator might have learned from that, but apparently not. Now she’s compared former president Donald Trump’s supporters to a cult.
Talking to CNN’s “Primetime” on October 5, Clinton told host Christine Amanpour there’s clearly a “common sense, sane” element in the House Republican caucus, but said she thinks those Republicans are “intimidated” by colleagues loyal to the former president. She described the MAGA movement as a “little tail of extremism” that wags the rest of the GOP. And then, showing she still hasn’t realized insulting people isn’t the best way to change their minds, she added “at some point… maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members… something needs to happen.”
If Clinton had been talking about a tiny band of extremists she might have gotten away with her comments, but right now Trump is running neck and neck with President Biden in polls for next year’s general election. That’s tens of millions of potential voters who are more likely to be offended by Clinton’s words than persuaded by them. It’s clear many people are offended already.
On October 6, Fox host and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany took to X (formerly Twitter) to slam Clinton’s comments. She quoted the failed candidate’s words, then added “Deplorable Moment times 10!” Talking on “Outnumbered!” later that day she said Clinton “wants to formally deprogram Trump supporters” and added, “You would expect to hear this in the Soviet Union… but not here in the United States.”
As a former staffer in Trump’s administration, McEnany is obviously one of the people Clinton was talking about — and it’s clear she wasn’t impressed at all. In the 2020 election, Trump received over 74 million votes; if all those voters feel the same as McEnany, Clinton’s words could backfire on her badly. Just like they did last time.
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