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Former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton showed support for President Joe Biden after he described MAGA Republicans as “semi-fascists,” during an appearance on The View on Wednesday, September 7. Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin asked the Gutsy host about whether she thought that the description was “divisive,” especially after she was criticized for calling former President Donald Trump’s supporters “deplorables” during the 2016 election. Clinton praised the president’s Philadelphia speech as getting a powerful message across. “I think he did a very important service to the country in giving the speech that he gave, because too many people are not yet aware of how fragile our Democracy is, and I’m not gonna second guess the language he used,” she began.
Clinton cited the January 6 attack on the Capitol as well as “threats of violence” and “concerns that people are expressing about the country falling apart” as examples of warning signs about the state of American Democracy. “I personally thought it was a strong and necessary speech,” she explained.
The former presidential candidate did explain that she was aware how strong describing Trump’s supporters as “semi-fascists” comes across, but she likened it to similar comparisons that Republicans make about Democrats. “Fascism is a very big word. I know that, but so is socialism, and the Republicans call every Democrat who wants people to have healthcare a ‘socialist,’” she said. “I think we do need to be careful with our language, but I think the problem is if you go through the hallmarks of authoritarian regimes, you see too many characteristics unfortunately on our Republican side.”
During Biden’s speech, he warned about the beliefs of MAGA Republicans. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” he said in part. Towards the end of her answer, Clinton also called on Republicans to stand up against Trump and his supporters at the ballot box. She called on right-wing voters to “reject all that, verbally, vocally in their voting and kind of re-constitute the republican party to where it used to be,” in the upcoming election. She warned that being “the party of Trump” is “dangerous” for Republicans’ future.
Clinton was appearing alongside her daughter Chelsea to promote their new AppleTV+ show Gutsy, which features the mother-daughter duo speaking to influential women in a variety of professions. Both women spoke to HollywoodLife about the importance of being gutsy at a virtual press conference for the show on Tuesday. Chelsea also called on Americans to speak out and vote to help protect equal rights. “I think there just is so much gutsiness required to continue to use our voices to stand up, certainly to vote, but also to use our voices to call attention to the harms where they are happening, and also to call attention and to amplify good where it is happening, to try to help protect women, to protect kids, and to advance more opportunities for everyone to live their best, fullest lives,” she said.