Former FBI Assistant Director: Large-Scale Program Needed to ‘De-Radicalize Trump’s Political Cult Members’

In a recent Salon interview, former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi calls for a large-scale “de-radicalization approach” to “Trump’s political cult members” who have been radicalized “for the last four years,” while stating the need to “deprogram” those who believe that Joe Biden did not win the recent presidential election.

The interview, published on Monday, begins with Salon politics staff writer Chauncey DeVega declaring that “today’s Republican Party is a political crime syndicate, and Trump is its leader” before asking how to “de-radicalize” Trump supporters.

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In response, Figliuzzi, a former FBI special agent who rose to the rank of assistant director when he led the bureau’s counterintelligence division, compares the radicalization of American citizens to international terrorism.

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Figliuzzi then proposes that not enough is done to combat homegrown radicalization because of the appearance of those radicalized.

“We have been watching a radicalization process for the last four years under the Trump administration,” he states. “But we are not doing enough about it because, in part, there is a lack of will or an incapacity to see people that ‘look like us’ as an equal or greater threat than people who do not look like us.”

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Figliuzzi then addresses how law enforcement approaches the issue of foreign enemies as compared to domestic terrorism.

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Comparing recruitment to foreign terror groups with domestic radicalization, Figliuzzi claims the two are “very similar.”

“It is very similar on the domestic side here in the United States with social media,” he says. “Online activity has played an enormous role and has almost everybody behind the curve.”

Figliuzzi then states that “using social media to call for breaching the Capitol and overwhelming the police is not free speech,” but “violence.”

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He then claims that the country must clear the “hurdle” of passing a domestic terror law, as it did with international terrorism.

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“We also need a more holistic, societal response that involves all hands on deck in terms of companies, government and law enforcement, everybody pulling together for a de-radicalization approach,” he says. “That must happen.”

“You’ve got to deprogram some people who believe Joe Biden didn’t win the election,” he adds.

The notion of “deradicalizing” and “deprogramming” Trump supporters has been fiercely promoted by those on the left in recent days following the November presidential elections and the storming of the U.S. Capitol last month.

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