Lara Logan on Calls to 'Deprogram' Conservatives: 'This Was Never About Trump'
WASHINGTON – Calls to 'deprogram' Trump supporters are becoming widely accepted among traditional media elites who never understood why such a wide swath of Americans supported the Trump presidency.
"The question is – how are we going to almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump," asked Katie Couric during a recent interview on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.
For many people, it was jaw-dropping to hear something so radical from a respected journalist.
"You kind of get that sinking feeling in your stomach because it's so disappointing. You're like, 'wow, seriously?,'" Lara Logan tells CBN News.
Logan, a longtime journalist and former 60 Minutes correspondent who now hosts her own show on Fox Nation: "Lara Logan Has No Agenda," says the idea of "deprogramming" a wide swath of Americans is more widely accepted than you might think.
'Deprogramming' Accepted as Necessity
"Just the idea that anyone needs to be deprogrammed is such a radical idea and yet this is not an idea that you're hearing on the fringes, right? This is an idea that's being published on the opinion pages of the Washington Post," Logan says.
She's right. Washington Post opinion writer Brian Klaas recently wrote, "So, do we have any hope of deprogramming the millions of Americans who are devoted to dangerous lunacy? Don't hold your breath."
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His is one in a slew of articles and commentary that accept deprogramming as a necessary response to Americans disappointed by the presidential election.
"There are millions of Americans – almost all white, almost all Republicans who, somehow, need to be deprogrammed. It's as if they're members of a cult, the Trumpist cult and they need to be deprogrammed," said Eugene Robinson, associate editor of The Washington Post during a recent appearance on MSNBC.
Logan points out she's not motivated by politics or party, rather outrage over the media's self-sustaining, sinister narrative that in some cases threatens the very lives and livelihoods of millions of American citizens.
The Self-Sustaining Narrative
"There is an entire infrastructure that is built around sustaining this narrative and targeting millions of people in this country who see the world differently and who they regard as a threat and now as illegitimate enough to have to be erased," Logan says.
"Hunter Biden's laptop was a conspiracy theory until it wasn't, right? And Russia collusion was never ever cast as a conspiracy theory, but it wasn't true, and how damaging was that? How about the fact that Stephen Scalise was shot by a Bernie Sanders supporter? What is it that Bernie Sanders supporters believed that justified picking up a weapon and going out and trying to kill someone? I mean, that's much more than sinister, that's much more than just media bias – there are actual political operatives who are being paid and who have placement and access throughout the media who are making sure that these narratives are sustained," she continues.
The Target Shifts
I asked Logan what it's all about. Is this just about Donald Trump or is it about conservatism? Her answer is pretty shocking.
"This was never about Donald Trump and that's what made Donald Trump so threatening to all the people who really, really, really went out of their way to destroy him and to get rid of him," she says.
"It was all about focusing everybody on the man so that you wouldn't remember to focus on the principles so that you wouldn't realize that what happened for the first time in living memory is that "We the people" as it is in the constitution actually said 'ok, we're gonna exercise our rights. We've had it. We're done. We're done with you saying things can only be done this way in Washington, we're done with you taking our tax dollars and then telling us that you know best, we're done with paying for NATO and then being disregarded and criticized and blamed for everything by the international community. Fine, we won't pay your defense bills then. We don't understand why you agreed to this trade deal with China that destroyed manufacturing in this country, we don't understand why you still are part of the United Nations when everyone at the UN says that America is to blame for everything,'" Logan explains.
"And what the propaganda was all about, what the targeting of Donald Trump and the emphasizing of every annoying thing about him that got emphasized over and over and over again was shaming you into not voting for him or admitting that you voted for him and distracting you from the real principles at stake so that he could be limited in what he'd be able to achieve and that he could quickly be gotten rid of as fast as possible and how do I know that's true? Because you don't have to take my word for it, I'm just a journalist. Well, you know it's true because look what happened even before he left office. The target shifted – it went from Donald Trump to you," she says.
It's a chilling assessment. One Logan says is being backed up with action.
Just look at the Department of Homeland Security's new domestic terrorism bulletin warning of "ideologically-motivated violent extremists" here at home.
People former CIA director John Brenna calls a greater threat than al-Qaida.
"This threat from domestic violent extremists is much more challenging, I believe, than it was in terms of going after foreign terrorists," Brennan said during a recent interview on MSNBC.
"Have we really forgotten what 9-11 was like that you're treating January 6th like 9-11?" Logan asks.
Collateral Damage
And she warns the media might not realize what it's ultimately sacrificing.
"So right now, it's reprogramming or deprogramming Trump supporters, what about when it's about deprogramming Christians of all kind, including left and right. You think because you're – you know people think 'well, I'm a better person than a Trump supporter because I've studied critical race theory and I voted for Joe Biden and I would never vote for Donald Trump or a horrible nasty Republican,' except you go to church and God and religion is a threat to the progressive secular movement in this country and now you need to be deprogrammed? And who's next? Who else is on the list?" she asks.
It's a question Logan, a native of South Africa, never ever thought she'd ask about the United States of America.
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