June 6, 2024
By Thomas Stevenson
A New York Democrat running for Congress suggested in a Zoom townhall meeting that Donald Trump supporters need to be subjected to “re-education camps” for the country to “put it all together again” after “we’ve gone through this MAGA nightmare.”
Paula Collins made the comments this week when discussing how to get past the election in 2024, even if there is a giant blue wave in support of Democrats. Collins is running against GOP House Chairwoman and New York Representative Elise Stefanik, in the Empire State’s 21st congressional district.
“Even if we were to have a resounding blue wave come through, as many of us would like, putting it all back together again after we’ve gone through this MAGA nightmare and re-educating basically, which, that sounds like a rather, a re-education camp. I don’t think we really want call it that,” she said during a virtual townhall meeting. “I’m sure we can find another way to phrase it,” she added, as reported by Fox Digital.
To explain the comments, Collins told Fox Digital, “We currently have lawmakers, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, who mis-quote or mis-understand the law… Even if MAGA were to be resoundingly defeated, we would need to engage in widespread civics education, which both red and blue voters acknowledge has been slipping in recent years.”
The Democrat candidate from New York then added, “The goal would be such that regular citizens could understand the process by which the state courts process matters, compared to the federal court circuit, and so forth.”
After Trump’s conviction in the falsified business records case in New York, Stefanik slammed the verdict as a “corrupt” and “illegally brought” against the 45th president.
Stefanik wrote in a statement about the comments from Collins, “Joe Biden and Democrats up and down the ballot are attacking democracy by weaponizing lawfare against President Trump and now threatening ‘re-education camps’ for Trump voters. Joe Biden, Hakeem Jeffries, and Chuck Schumer must immediately condemn this statement.”
In response to the comments about “re-education,” senior advisor to Stefanik, Alex DeGrasse, stated, “This radical New York City Democrat Socialist who literally is renting a bed and breakfast room in NY-21 was caught on tape saying she wants to force Trump voters through ‘re-education camps.’ Everyone knows she will be defeated by Elise Stefanik by a historic margin. This is yet another reason why President Trump, Elise Stefanik, and voters in Upstate and across America will clean the Democrats’ clocks at the ballot box this November.”
The 21st district, located in the northern most part of upstate New York, skews heavily Republican, while Collins comes from the traditionally deep blue area of New York City. Collins has said that she lived in NYC prior to springtime in 2024. She is a cannabis attorney and is currently renting a housing unit in Canton, New York to qualify for the seat.
