OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds torched twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over her comments, where she called many members of the Republican Party a “cult” for defending former President Donald Trump.
“How do you feel about being told you’re in a cult?” Donalds was asked.
“I stopped caring about what Hillary Clinton had to say long ago because she lost a long, long time ago,” Donalds replied. “And she’s largely irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. But to a broader level, since Hillary wants to engage, allow me to engage,” Donalds began.
“You lied multiple times, you destroyed emails, you destroyed evidence, and then you laundered phony information that you knew was phony into the intelligence community because you were scared you were going to lose,” Donalds added. “You did all this and you still lost, so I’m not going to listen to Hillary Clinton about who I should and should not support.”
“She has lied to the American people repeatedly. She used our government to spy on the campaign of one of her opponents. Yes, America, she did that. So if people like talking about Watergate and Nixon, look no further than Hillary Clinton and the Crossfire Hurricane.”
WATCH:
Clinton made headlines last week when she claimed that another Trump term in the Oval Office would mean the “end of our country as we know it.”
Sunny Hostin, a co-host on “The View,” asked Clinton what she thought a second Trump term would look like.
“I can’t even think of that. Because I think it would be the end of our country as we know it,” Clinton began. “And I don’t say that lightly.”
The former first lady and secretary of state then claimed that she advocated for giving Trump a chance after losing to him in 2016.
“You know, I hated losing. And I especially hated losing to him because I had seen some of the warning signals during the campaign,” Clinton continued. “But I immediately said, ‘Look, we have to give him a chance; we’ve got to support, you know, the president we have,’ and I meant it.”
In fact, Clinton called Trump an “illegitimate president” for years after his victory.
“I tried really hard, but then literally from his inauguration on, it was nothing but, you know, accusing people of things, making up facts,” she added. “Everything that I worried about I saw unfolding, and so I think that he’d be even worse now because he was somewhat restrained—believe it or not—in the first term by people who he hired because he thought they would go along with him and they stood up to him.”
It’s hard to imagine that Clinton, if she ever were to become president, would put up with appointees who ultimately disagreed with her policies, as no other president has done in the modern age.
She continued: “Now, he’s going to—if he were ever near the Oval Office again—find people who have no principles, no conscience, who are totally tied to his fortunes, literally, and therefore would do whatever he said. And so the wreckage is almost unimaginable.”
Clinton then went on to say budding authoritarians would then move to “shut things down” and throw political opponents in jail, much like Democratic governors shut down their states during COVID and how the Biden administration has jailed Jan. 6 Capitol protesters for years without trials.
“You know, when I was secretary of state, I used to talk about one and done, and what I meant by that is that people would get legitimately elected, and then they would try to do away with elections, and do away with opposition, and so away with a free press, and you could see it in certain countries,” Clinton said.
“Trump is telling us what he intends to do,” Clinton said, adding, “Take him at his word.”
