Clinton-era Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has slammed U.S. efforts to secure the border, telling the BBC that the immigration policy of President Donald J. Trump “makes it very hard for America to tell Europeans … to be more humane”
Promoting her new book entitled Fascism: A Warning on the Andrew Marr Show, the former U.S. Secretary of State said she has been “very troubled” by the Trump administration’s moves to end the ‘catch and release’ of illegals into American communities while they await immigration hearings.
America’s former ambassador told the BBC that detentions at the U.S. border “remind one of things that happen in fascist countries”, adding that “there’s plenty of room for people in the United States and there are a lot of companies now saying that we need them”.
When people ask her opinion “about what’s happening to Europe on the same issue”, Albright said she thinks the President’s “offensive” crackdown on illegal immigration “makes it very hard for America to tell Europeans what to do if we can’t figure out how to be more humane ourselves”.
Asked on the BBC whether the ‘fascism’ of her book title describes Trump, she denied it but said: “I do think he’s the most undemocratic President in modern American history and that troubles me.”
Marr pointed out: “There is another way of looking at this which is that you have an idiosyncratic, outspoken, very popular President, a well-tried, long-tested democratic system which is robust, and an opposition which simply doesn’t get it.”
In response, Albright told the BBC journalist that “fascism is hard to define”, alleging that “a fascist leader is someone who identifies himself with one group, tribal of some kind, in order to really isolate and insulate the people who are disagreed with”.
But she added: “Ultimately a fascist leader uses violence to get what he wants, so no, I do not think that Trump is a fascist leader but I do think his attitude towards freedom of speech and the role of the media, and his disregards for institutions worries me.”
The warhawk leftist who served under President Bill Clinton has been a vocal critic of Trump, last month alleging in a discussion with the Washington Post that the President’s immigration policy and language referring to migrants was “un-American and appalling”.
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