Anderson Cooper said Wednesday afternoon on CNN that Republicans are “like a nihilistic death cult” if they continue to follow President Donald Trump.
A riot broke out Wednesday when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Lawmakers were scheduled to certify the Electoral College votes but were forced to evacuate due to a report of a suspicious package and because of the breach of the Capitol by the rioters.
“Let me ask you, the Republicans just lost the Senate and, you know, you had Donald Trump Jr. earlier this morning saying, you know, this is Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which we have said over and over and over again, which clearly it is now, why would any Republican continue to follow this man?” Cooper said. “As he goes off to Mar-a-Lago with his quarter of a billion dollars, I know they want some of that money, I know they’re afraid of a bad tweet, but I mean, just — the GOP is becoming like a nihilistic death cult if they follow him.”
“Again, I think, today, yesterday and today were two moments within the Republican Party that hopefully will give people in the party the opportunity to step back and say, do we want to sign this death pact?” Former Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum responded. “Because I believe it is a death pact.” (RELATED: Woman Allegedly Shot In Neck As Capitol Building Swamped With Rioters)
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Cooper asked Santorum if he believed “people may be at that point.”
“Well, I think so — look, I’m hearing from a lot of people,” Santorum said. “And what I’m hearing is that, you know, we didn’t sign up for this.”
Van Jones said that there needs to be “a glide path for people who want to break away” from the current Republican Party.
“What do Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley do now?” Gloria Borger asked. (RELATED: GOP Congressman: ‘This Is A Coup Attempt’)
“The fact that they haven’t said, okay, you know what, we’ll come back, maybe we need to reconsider this, because this is what –they are doing Donald Trump’s bidding here,” Borger continued. “They know that their concerns are not going anywhere. And let me tell you one more thing. I just heard from somebody who is a good friend, has been a good friend to the president over the years, who is so disgusted and this person said, the president incited this.”
“The question I now have is, what happens over the next two weeks?” she added. “This is not over.”