Hillary Clinton: MAGA ‘cult members’ need ‘deprogramming’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton railed against supporters of former President Trump during a new CNN interview, comparing those who still support the former president after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection to members of a cult.

“Maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members,” she said in a clip released late Thursday.

“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,” Clinton added. “He’s only in it for himself.”

She predicted Trump will likely be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, and she believes President Biden can beat him again.

“One will wreck our democracy. One violates the law on a regular basis. One appeals to the worst in our collective psyche. The other gets things done,” she said in the interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “Why is that a hard choice?” 

A Trump-affiliated super PAC denounced Clinton’s comments early Friday, saying they are akin to her wanting “re-education camps.”

“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,” Make America Great Again Inc. spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said. “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,”

Clinton also commented on the ongoing Republican leadership race in the House of Representatives, after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted from the job Tuesday by a small group of disgruntled GOP members voting with Democrats.

The GOP is in “an absolute hostage situation with its most extreme members,” Clinton said. 

“[McCarthy] was not continuing to be captive to the far-right extremists. So they toppled him. It was a very small number as you look at the vote. But now we’re reaping the consequences of their misbehavior,” she added.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) are the front-runners for the job. Trump backed Jordan late Thursday after rumors circulated the former president could be interested in the role. 

Clinton described Jordan, a co-founder of the conservative Freedom Caucus, as “one of the principal ringleaders of the circus” in the GOP. 

And she urged the new Republican Speaker, whoever that may be, to rein in the party’s right wing.

“At some point, there needs to be a backlash against the control that this small group of extremists have,” she said on CNN. “And I don’t know who will lead that, but let’s hope whoever becomes the new Speaker will.” 

Updated at 8:09 a.m.