And tonight, in a brand
new interview,
former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton is telling CNN's
Christiane Amanpour
that Donald Trump will likely
be the Republican nominee.
And she's
also issuing a stark warning
about a potential 2024 rematch
with President Biden.
Listen.
So for those outside
this country who may not know,
it is not so much of a fight
between two different parties.
It's an internecine warfare
within one party.
The GOP. Yeah.
So when you look at
how to go forward
for the country, as you say,
is there any area of coalition building
that could happen?
There are pragmatic Republicans,
as you say.
Could there be a new
a whole new way of trying to,
you know, get legislation
going and cross-party
governance going by Democrats
and certain Republicans
forming a coalition?
Well,
you saw the number of Republicans
who voted, along with Democrats,
to keep the government open.
So there's clearly a common sense
sane part of
the Republican caucus in the House.
But I think they are intimidated.
They oftentimes,
you know, say
and do things
which they know better than to say or do.
And it will require us
defeating those most extreme measures
and the people who promote them in order
to try to get to some common ground
where people can again, work together.
That's the way it used to be.
I mean,
we had very strong
partizans in both parties in the past,
and we had very bitter
battles over all kinds of things
gun control
and climate change
and the economy and taxes.
But there wasn't this little tail
of extremism, them
waving,
you know,
wagging the dog of the Republican Party
as it is today.
And sadly,
so many of those extremists,
those MAGA extremists,
take their marching orders
from Donald Trump,
who has no credibility
left by any measure.
He's only in it for himself.
He's now defending himself
in civil actions and criminal actions.
And when do they break with him?
You know, because at some point,
you know,
maybe there needs to be
a formal deprogramming
of the cult members,
but something needs to happen.
And how do you do that?
Because you said you have to defeat them
by defeating their leader.
Their leader is Donald Trump.
Even you have said that you expect him
to be the Republican nominee.
How does this change at all
at this point?
I think, sadly,
he will still likely be the nominee.
And we have to defeat him
and we have to defeat those
who are the election deniers,
as we did in 2020 and 2022.
And we have to,
you know,
just be smarter about how we are trying
to empower the right people
inside the Republican Party.
You know,
Nancy Pelosi
had a majority of five votes
when she was speaker.
Kevin McCarthy
had a majority of five votes.
Nancy Pelosi passed
consequential legislation.
And she clearly had members within her
caucus who,
you know, ranged
across a spectrum of political beliefs
and ideology.
And she kept everybody together.
And she kept everybody
focused on the future.
He couldn't do that.
And so he paid a price.
But more importantly,
the country paid a price.
And so when you see another match up
between
potentially Trump and President Biden,
what goes through your mind
and particularly
how do you process that
this person
who defeated you back
in 2016 is still at it,
given all that you've said?
91 indictments, you know, civil fraud,
sexual transgressions,
according to the courts.
How is this still happening?
It's a classic tale of
an authoritarian populist
who really has a grip
on the emotional, psychological
needs and desires of a portion
of the population
and the base of the Republican Party
for whatever combination of reasons.
And it is emotional and psychological
sees in
him someone who speaks for them,
and they are determined
that they will continue to vote
for him, attend
his rallies, wear his merchandise,
because for whatever reason, he and his,
you know, very negative, nasty
form of politics resonates with them.
Maybe they don't like migrants.
Maybe they don't like gay people
or black people
or the woman
who got the promotion at work.
They didn't get.
Whatever the reason,
you know, Make America
Great Again was a bid for nostalgia
to return to a place where,
you know, people
could be in charge
of their lives, feel empowered,
say what they want, insult
whoever came in their way.
And that was really attractive
to a significant portion
of the Republican base.
So it is like a cult and somebody
has to break the
break that momentum.
And that's why I believe
Joe Biden will defeat him.
And hopefully then that will be the end
and the fever will break
and then
Republicans can try to get back to,
you know, fighting about issues
among themselves and electing people
who are at least,
you know, responsible and accountable.