A Democrat who is running for Congress sparked outrage after suggesting that supporters of Donald Trump should be sent to re-education camps.
Paula Collins, the Democratic candidate for New York’s 21st Congressional District, was addressing a public townhall held on Zoom when she made the comments.
“Even if we were to have a resounding blue wave come through, as many of us would like, putting it all back together again after we’ve gone through this MAGA nightmare and re-educating basically, which, that sounds like a rather, a re-education camp,” she said during the meeting. “I don’t think we really want call it that – I’m sure we can find another way to phrase it.”
Collins’ remarks drew criticism from social media users, with some highlighting the similarities to the barbaric regimes of dictators such as Adolf Hitler. In Nazi Germany, concentration camps which subjected millions of people to inhumane conditions, torture and often execution were described as sites of re-education by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Others likened Collins’ comments to Hilary Clinton’s suggestion of “deprogramming” supporters of the Republican.
Collins later clarified her comments to Fox News, stating that the country “would need to engage in widespread civics education”. Her comments came after Trump’s repeated criticism of the judicial system following his hush money trial in New York.
The Democratic cannabis tax attorney is hoping to defeat incumbent GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik at this year’s election in November. Stefanik was first elected to Congress at the age of 30 in 2014.
