A Democratic marijuana tax lawyer seeking to unseat Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in New York’s 21st Congressional District has come under fire from the incumbent’s camp for suggesting that supporters of former President Donald Trump be sent to “re-education camps” as part of an effort to resolve what she called the “MAGA nightmare.”
Paula Collins, who is running unopposed in the June 25 Democratic primary, made the shocking suggestion during a virtual town hall event on Wednesday, arguing that such camps are necessary even if Democrats expect a “overwhelming blue wave” in the 2024 election.
“Knowing civil rights, knowing our system of government is going to be crucial moving forward,” Collins, 60, argued during the Zoom event, before suggesting the need for “reeducation.”
“Even if there is an overwhelming wave of Democratic support, as many of us would like, we will get through this MAGA nightmare and basically bring everything back and do some re-education that sounds more like a re-education camp,” Collins said.
“We don’t really want to call it that,” she told constituents on a conference call, “and I’m sure we can find another way to say it.”
The comments were reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s claim, made during the unsuccessful 2016 presidential election, that “cult members” who support Trump needed to be “formally deprogrammed”.
“A lot of these extremists, these MAGA extremists, are taking their direction from Donald Trump, who by any standards has no credibility,” Clinton said during an October 2023 appearance on CNN, referring to the 77-year-old former president’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
“So when are they going to cut ties with him? You know, at some point there may need to be a formal deprogramming of the cultists, but something needs to happen,” she added.
Alex DeGrasse, a senior adviser to Stefanik, slammed Collins’ comments, noting that the Democratic candidate was not a resident of New York’s 21st Congressional District until she began her campaign.
“This radical Democratic socialist, who is literally renting a room at a bed-and-breakfast in New York City, was recorded saying he wanted to force Trump supporters into ‘re-education camps,'” DeGrasse told the Post.
“We all know she will lose to Elise Stefanik by a historic margin,” he added. “This is one more reason why President Trump, Elise Stefanik, and voters in upstate New York and across the nation will swamp the polls in November for Democrats.”
Collins did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
But in a statement to Fox News, she stressed the need to re-educate “MAGA” supporters.
“Right now we have lawmakers, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, who are misquoting and misinterpreting the law,” she said. He told the media“Even if MAGA were to be defeated, we would need to address widespread civics education, which Republicans and Democrats both acknowledge has been in decline in recent years.”
“The purpose is to help the public understand things like the process by which state courts handle cases compared to federal circuit courts,” Collins explained, arguing that Stefanik’s “protest” against Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan hush money trial “speaks of a lack of basic civics education, and a basic lack of respect for the state supreme court system in her home state of New York.”
