TV news veteran Katie Couric is facing backlash on social media after she suggested during an appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher” that members of President Trump’s “cult” needed to be “deprogrammed.”
Ms. Couric made her comments after Mr. Maher said he was more worried about the “loons” in Congress than the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in the Jan. 6 riot.
“Because, I mean, what do you do about these people? There’s 147 Republicans in Congress who still don’t concede that Trump lost the election,” Mr. Maher said. “What do you do about people who are in the government who don’t believe in our way of government?”
“It is so shocking,” Ms. Couric responded. “Not only are they not conceding, Bill, but there are thoughts that there might have been some collusion among members of Congress, some are refusing to go through magnetometers or whatever you call them to check for weapons, they’re not wearing masks during the siege. I mean, it’s really bizarre, isn’t it, when you think about how AWOL so many of these members of Congress have gotten.
“But I also think some of them are believing the garbage that they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they bought into this big lie,” she continued. “And the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump.”
Ms. Couric added that she supported the House’s second impeachment of Mr. Trump, saying the president “incited violence” and “you cannot let that stand.”
At one point in the show, Ms. Couric compared Sen. Mitt Romney, Utah Republican, to Nelson Mandela.
“He seems to be an incredible statesman now, because he’s spoken out against” the president, she said.
Ms. Couric’s comments were mocked by NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham.
“Katie is ‘retired’ from any ‘objective’ news duties,” he told Fox News. “She has been a partisan for a long time.”
“Katie Couric making such offensive comments comes as no surprise. She is part of a media complex that deliberately stifled the flow of information negative to Biden in order to interfere in the election,” Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told Fox News.
Katie Couric: “How are we going to really, almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump?” pic.twitter.com/MW5LWN3dOk
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) January 18, 2021
Who knew sweet Katie Couric could make China’s Xingjiang re-education camps seem half hearted. Their “reprogramming” of about a million Uyghurs is a trifle compared to her desire to reprogram the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump. https://t.co/GL4PTFAQxE
— David Asman (@DavidAsmanfox) January 19, 2021
Clearly, the media have gotten the memo about Trump supporters needing to be “deprogrammed.” https://t.co/fEoOXXSUJJ
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) January 18, 2021