Stacey Abrams Slams Donald Trump As Authoritarian & Says U.S. Must ‘Nip It In The Bud’ For Democracy’s Sake

Democrat Stacey Abrams appeared on The View Thursday morning, where she called out President Donald Trump as authoritarian during a discussion with conservative co-host Meghan McCain.

The interview began with McCain asking Abrams about a comment she recently made. McCain quoted Abrams as saying the United States is in the beginning stages of an authoritarian regime. The host talked to her guest about comparing the U.S. to Turkey under President Erdogan. She noted that Erdogan had jailed more journalists than any other western countries and she asked Abrams how she could say the U.S. was no better than Turkey. However, Abrams clarified that she did not say the U.S. was on the same level as Turkey.

“I didn’t call it no better than Turkey. I said we’re on the path to populist authoritarianism. Erdogan was elected president who, over time, diminished the courts by packing it with people who supported him. He eliminated the voices of those who were supposed to be the independent guardrails of democracy, and he used that power to call for the militarization of their public institutions. We are seeing evidence of that in the United States,” Abrams explained.

.@staceyabrams: “We have to acknowledge the authoritarian nature of Donald Trump and we’ve got to nip it in the bud if we want democracy to continue here, and if we want to continue to be the moral leader abroad.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/mAwnJRMlKL

— The View (@TheView) June 11, 2020

She went on to say that she is not comparing apples to oranges between the two countries. However, she noted there are signs she sees in the U.S. under the Trump administration that are similar to Erdogan’s Turkey. She also said the same type of situation occurred in Brazil, India, and Hungary. She then issued a strong warning to America, telling the country to “nip [authoritarianism] in the bud” in order to preserve democracy. She also expressed concern that the U.S. was losing its moral authority throughout the world.

The show tweeted the video on it’s official account. Several Twitter users hit the “like” button and retweeted the interview. Dozens of accounts also left a comment.

“Here in Europe, the US has not been the ‘moral leader abroad’ since 2017,” wrote one user, quoting Abrams.

“Thank you for calling her out on twisting your words. She does that continuously,” a second account replied.

During her appearance, Abrams — who ran for the governor of Georgia in 2018, narrowly losing in what many felt was an unfair election — touched on the issues voters experienced during the state’s primary elections earlier this week. In her discussion with host Whoopie Goldberg, Abrams took aim at the Secretary of State of Georgia Brad Raffensperger for the problems and called him out for refusing to do his job responsibly.