Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who is best known for her flagship essay in the New York Times’ ahistorical 1619 Project, believes that 74 million Americans deserve to be “punished” as part of deprogramming them for voting for Donald Trump in 2020.
The 1619 Project creator spoke to Eugene Robinson on MSNBC, where he asked her about how the media and social elites can best “deprogram” the “millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans” who voted for Trump, as they are clearly part of a “cult.”
Hannah-Jones responded with a vague call to look toward an undefined “history,” declaring that “there has to be consequences” based on how you vote. She then decried the push towards a quick “reconciliation” between the left and right. The so-called journalist painted Trump supporters with a broad brush, lumping the Capitol rioters in with average Republicans who voted based on policy.
Her only explanation of why anyone would possibly vote for Trump was that the “white labor force” voted for his policies to keep themselves more powerful than “Muslims, Latinos and Black Americans.” By inventing exclusively racist intentions of her political enemies, Hannah-Jones said every Trump-voting Republican merits “punishment” before they can be allowed to re-enter polite society and have a chance at reconciliation.
WaPo’s @Eugene_Robinson to @nhannahjones: How do we “deprogram” Trump supporters? pic.twitter.com/LnFrAd6NXZ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 12, 2021
.@nhannahjones: The “white labor force” votes “against their own economic interests because it means they are still above … Muslims, Latinos and black Americans” pic.twitter.com/ck1KpzWLp2
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 12, 2021
Many found Hannah-Jones and Robinson’s comments surrounding the deprogramming of people based on their political views to sound eerily similar to reeducation camps of brutal dictatorships, especially by the Chinese Communist Party.
Consult with the CCP. It has quite a successful “reprogramming” operation underway. https://t.co/vCnKhA1HHV
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) January 12, 2021
Re-education camps? https://t.co/gPvs1IDXFO
— Tom Borelli, Ph.D. (@tomborelli) January 12, 2021
More than 74 million people voted for Trump, and their reasons varied from adoration to a mere preference over now-President-elect Joe Biden and his policies. Likewise, ascribing racist intentions ignores how Trump gained increased support among black and Latino voters. Labeling every one of the millions of Americans who voted for one of the candidates from a major political party as a “cult” is absurd — and the growing calls from the left for them all to be “deprogrammed” should startle every American.
