Republican CNN Analyst Rips Hillary Clinton’s ‘Inappropriate’ Deprogramming Remark: ‘Don’t Go After People in Middle America’
CNN political commentator Alice Stewart criticized Hillary Clinton’s call for a “formal deprogramming” of “cult members” who support former President Donald Trump on Friday, calling the remarks “inappropriate” and “petty.”
During an appearance on CNN Primetime, Stewart — who worked on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaigns — told host Abby Phillip:
First off, I agree with a lot of what she said about Donald Trump. Look, he’s in this for himself, he appeals to the lower psyche of some people, he has skirted with breaking the law on many occasions, and he has very little credibility. She’s right about much of that, and I get she’s frustrated that she lost to him in 2016, but for her to go after his supporters, more than 70 million Americans in this country who are patriotic Americans, who look to Donald Trump as someone who is going to fight for them and secure the border, and work to limit government, and help the economy, to call them members of a cult who need to be deprogrammed? That’s really petty. It’s a petty thing to say and to go after his supporters is not right. And this is just 2.0 of what she said in 2016, saying that his supporters were part of a “basket of deplorables.”
Stewart argued, “It’s not a smart move on her part and it’s inaccurate to say people that are looking to him for all the right reasons, to call them such names and say they need to be deprogrammed.”
Brian Fallon, a former press secretary for Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, weighed in, “Well, the deplorables comment in 2016 was a hit for the Trump campaign and so I think they’re trying to play the hits again.”
“I don’t actually think she was talking about supporters or voters in this case,” he said, arguing that Clinton was instead referring to extreme elements in the Republican conference in Congress.
Stewart responded that while Trump was “a big part” of politics in the country taking a dramatic turn, “the reality is when you’re saying that millions of Americans are members of a cult and need to have their brains rewired because they support someone for, again, for all the right reasons, that’s just not right, and it’s certainly inappropriate.”
She continued, “Go after him. Don’t go after people in middle America. Look, I lived in Arkansas for many years, in middle America. She knows what Middle America and flyover country is like. She could not have gotten out of there fast enough to move to New York, and run for Senate, and to live the life she lives. If she saw what people in flyover country, what their lives are like and why they support Donald Trump, she certainly wouldn’t say that.”
Meanwhile, on Clinton’s 2016 “basket of deplorables” comment, Fallon said, “I think it was a poor choice of words, obviously, in 2016. That was a gift to the Republicans that she would take back if she could.”
Watch above via CNN.
