'A chilling moment': CNN reporter unnerved by Trump's 'foreboding' MAGA rioter tribute

CNN reporter Stephen Collinson on Monday found himself unable to conceal how disturbed he was by former President Donald Trump regularly paying tribute to the violent rioters who attacked the United States Capitol on his behalf.

Trump regularly refers to the January 6th rioters as "hostages" and has vowed to free them from jail should he be elected president again later this year.

Collinson, however, took a hatchet to Trump's claims about the rioters.

"These people aren't hostages," he said. "They've gone through a legal process. They were found guilty by juries... and they're serving their time for what was, you know, a crime against democracy."

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He then shifted focus to the way Trump is trying to use the deadly January 6th riots to his political advantage by deploying the same election-denying playbook he used in 2020.

"What's interesting about the way Trump is doing it, he's almost laying the groundwork for a new election which, if he loses, he will say, 'This is the same thing, the system is broken, there is fraud,'" he explained. "This is what he does. He sets the groundwork for delegitimizing an election even before it happens."

He then turned his focus back to Trump's regular tributes to the Capitol rioters at his rallies.

"It is quite a chilling moment, when you're in one of those rallies, to see this unfold," he said. "There's a thing he does at the end... which is almost a dirge of really extremist rhetoric with this foreboding music, and you see the rally turn from almost a comedy show, as it is in some cases, into something a lot darker, and that plays into this idea of a second term being devoted to retribution."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reporter unnerved by Trump's 'foreboding' MAGA rioter tributewww.youtube.com