Rachel Maddow: GOP has become party of a ‘fringe, violent, extremist criminal movement’

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on her show that the Republican party over the past four years has been transformed into a force that threatens the stability of democracy.

“They [Republicans] are not dealing with how do we regroup, and address our internal differences, and come back to the American people with a newly credible case that we should be governing,” Maddow said. “They’re dealing with what we would usually think of as a fringe, violent, extremist criminal movement.” 

Maddow said that movement is “right at the heart of what they are offering the country right now” and GOP leadership is mounting an effort to make sure former President Trump, who she said “drove them hardest and fastest in that direction,” can run for president again in 2024. 

Trump has not made any definitive statements about his political future, saying “we’ll be back in some form” during his final public remarks as president. 

Trump was impeached this month on one article of inciting insurrection against the government after speaking at a rally in Washington, D.C., shortly before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol following his urging that they show “strength” in contesting President Biden’s victory. 

All but five Republican Senators on Tuesday voted that an impeachment trial against Trump was unconstitutional since he has already vacated office, making his conviction unlikely. 

“That’s more than a party in disarray,” Maddow said. “That’s something where it’s very hard to have a stable democracy based on a two-party system if that’s one of the two parties, if that’s their contention.”

“They’re dealing with what we would usually think of as a fringe, violent, extremist criminal movement,” @Maddow says of the Republican Party.

“That’s more than a party in disarray. That’s something where it’s very hard to have a stable democracy based on a two-party system.” pic.twitter.com/qJ7M7Z3lEB

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 27, 2021

Maddow pivoted to recent controversies sparked by Republican members of Congress in recent days, including Rep. Marjorie Greene (R-Ga.) who before being elected to Congress last year reportedly advocated for political violence against Democrats on social media and liked a Facebook comment suggesting “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to get rid of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Video surfaced Wednesday showing Greene mocking and taunting a survivor of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., calling the gun safety activist who was in the district lobbying for stricter gun control “a coward.” 

“And you are using your lobby and the money behind it and the kids to try to take away my Second Amendment rights,” the congresswoman is seen shouting at the former student on the video. “You don’t have anything to say for yourself?”

“What are going to do about our members who are bringing guns on to the floor,” Maddow said in reference to Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who reportedly set a metal detector off at the Capitol after he attempted to bring his personal firearm into the chamber. 

“This is not politics, per se,” Maddow said. “This is a question about the viability of Democracy if that’s one of the two parties in this country.”