MSNBC Analyst Says Trump’s ‘Demonization’ of People Has Put Americans at ‘War With Each Other’

MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade said former President Donald Trump put Americans “at war” with one another by demonizing his political opponents and their ideas.

McQuade joined host Nicolle Wallace on Thursday’s Deadline: White House to discuss political extremism during a conversation about groups who were present during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Wallace said Republicans, including Trump, did not fear extremists present that day as they felt safe from them.

McQuade said Republicans in general see protecting extremists as politically advantageous.

“I think that Donald Trump has been very successful in exploiting differences in this country,” she said. “They were already there – differences between conservatives and progressives – but Donald Trump has done all he can to stoke those divisions and push people to more extreme versions of themselves, and to put them at war with each other.”

McQuade said previous generations of Americans could disagree on issues such as abortion and immigration without resorting to violence.

“Now it is all or nothing,” she said. She added:

You are for us or you are against us. And political rivals are not just political opponents, they are demonized. They are the enemy. There was one member at a Trump rally who said it’s team Trump versus Team Lucifer, and it’s not difficult to decide. And so when there’s that stoking and that demonization of the other, people are turned against their neighbors, their friends.

She added there was once a bipartisan fight against foreign enemies but there are now threats from groups such as the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters.

Watch above, via MSNBC.