MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade during Thursday’s “Deadline,” blamed former President Donald Trump for what she said was putting Americans at war with each other.
Discussing domestic extremist groups, Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “Barbara, as everyone is talking, I’m thinking about Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony about what Donald Trump said about his armed supporters on January 6. When he said, ‘Take down the mags and let them in. They won’t hurt me.’ Do you think the why is that Republicans think they don’t represent a threat to them? I still struggle with the why.”
McQuade said, “I think they see political advantage in protecting that group and advancing that narrative. I think that Donald Trump has been very successful in exploiting differences in this country. 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.”
She added, “When I was in college, I’m sure you thought this as well, Nicolle, you could have different views on things like affirmative action and abortion and immigration and gun control. You might be in favor of one, opposed to another. But now it is all or nothing. You are for us or 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. When there’s that stoking and the demonization of the other, people are turned against their neighbors and friends. It reminds me, Nicolle of the work we did in the Bush administration and in the Obama administration, it was called CVE, countering violent extremism, it was focused against al Qaeda and nobody had a problem with it. Now it’s the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and the Three percenters we should see everyone rallying around that effort as well to build that resilience but yet I see one party abandoning their responsibly to the people.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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