Hillary Clinton criticized the current state of the Republican party on Monday, denouncing the GOP for what she described as cultlike allegiance to former President Trump.
“They’ve done a calculation. They’ve concluded Trump is the puppet master who pulls the strings of the hardcore base of the Republican Party,” the former Democratic presidential candidate said in a Washington Post Live interview. “They’re just throwing the towel in.”
She said she hopes the party will “find its soul, will find its center again and understand they can’t keep playing with fire.”
Clinton referred to the party as a “cult” when discussing the fear among Republican lawmakers that if they turn against Trump, they will receive a primary opponent.
“It is really troubling to see the Republican Party turn themselves into a cult and basically pledge allegiance not to the United States of America but to Donald Trump,” Clinton said.
These comments came just hours after Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.) announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022, becoming the latest prominent Senate Republican to announce retirement.
Clinton zeroed in on these retiring lawmakers, saying they “don’t have the stomach anymore to stand up and fight against extremism in their own party.”
The frequent Trump critic also said that after the 2016 election, she hoped Trump would “once in office, understand the enormity of the job, have some of that sense of humility that presidents need to have when they’re in the Oval Office.”
But “he never grew into the job. He never accepted the awesome responsibility that goes with being president,” the former secretary of State said.
Clinton also weighed in on the debate over ending the filibuster.
“We have a minority that is becoming more and more extreme that is basically holding the majority — not just of Congress but of the country — back,” Clinton said.
She said she is “encouraged there are conversations about whether, if [the filibuster is] not done away with completely, it can be modified.”