FAREED ZAKARIA (HOST): Once Donald Trump locked up the nomination, Republicans were confident about his next moves. He would tone down his rhetoric and pivot to the center. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said, “Donald Trump understands that this is not a primary season anymore.” Trump himself promised only last month, “I’m going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored.” So much for getting bored. On June 12, 2016, the United States suffered its worst terrorist attack since 9/11, a particularly sickening blow because the killer targeted a minority group long subject to discrimination. Trump’s reaction was to congratulate himself in a tweet. Over the next two days, he called on Obama to resign and Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race, insinuated that the president actually wanted the jihadis to win, repeated his proposed ban on all Muslims entering the country, and warned American Muslims that they had better cooperate with the authorities.
One of Trump’s leading surrogates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, suggested reviving the House Un-American Activities Committee, infamous for punishing Americans loosely accused of being communists or communist sympathizers in the 1950s and ‘60s. Trump’s longtime friend and Republican consultant Roger Stone outlined a new McCarthy-style witch hunt, telling Breitbart: “There’s going to be a new focus on whether this administration, the administration of Hillary Clinton at the State Department was permeated at the highest levels by Saudi intelligence and others who are not loyal Americans.” He pointed a finger specifically at Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest and most long-standing aides and a Muslim American, saying, “We have to ask: Do we have a Saudi spy in our midst? Do we have a terrorist agent?” There is, of course, zero evidence for this charge.
