RIGHT WING EXTREMISM
Watch: National Security Expert Compares ‘Cult-Like’ Big Lie Supporters to ‘What We See in Violent Jihad’

Frank Figliuzzi, the former Assistant FBI Director for Counterintelligence, is likening Trump disciples in the Republican Party supporting and promoting the “Big Lie” that the election was stolen to “violent jihadists,” because they are “people who are consciously disregarding truth and reality.”
Now an NBC News national security analyst, Figliuzzi told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday that “where we are right now” is in a “cult-like scenario.”
Trumpism “has gone way beyond a political ideology,” Figliuzzi says. “It is now the identity of a party. But it’s more than that because it’s now become a personal identity for those who consume the ‘Big Lie’ that the grand deception – and I can’t help because of my national security lens that I look at things through, to compare this to what we see in violent jihad.”
“What do I mean by that?” he continued.
“Yes, you have the purveyors and perpetrators of a ‘Big Lie.’ You become a martyr. You get this level of paradise. You go to Valhalla – here’s what happens: Those people are infidels. Yes, there are gurus and cultists and violent jihadists who preach that, but there’s also consumers who have to buy it and at the point where we’re at now, that supply and demand, the demand side of this are people who are consciously disregarding truth and reality.”
“You know, a year ago, two years ago, you and I would say things like, ‘Here’s how to be nice to loony relatives at Thanksgiving Dinner.’ ‘Here’s how to keep showing facts to people who need to see the facts more.’ ‘Oh, these poor victims have gone down an echo chamber. They’re living in a rabbit hole. How do we get them out?'”
“It is a conscious decision to accept the Big Lie,” he continued. “Why? Because it has become their personal identity. If they begin to reject the facts – there was no fraud, there was no systemic crimes committed that would have resulted in the overturning of liberty – if they reject that, they are literally rejecting their personal identity.”
“So this is a much harder nut to crack for us as a society,” Figliuzzi warned. “We not only need to hold accountable those who continue – like [Republican Senator] Ted Cruz Monday night on Fox – saying that January 6 was a ‘peaceful protest.’ He said it Monday night on Fox, it’s not only holding them accountable, it’s now figuring out what to do with those who consume deliberately by choice, the Big Lie, knowing that it’s wrong.”
"Two years ago, you and I would say…'here's how to be nice to looney relatives at Thanksgiving dinner'…I'm at the point where…it's a conscious decision to accept the Big Lie. Why? Because it has become their personal identity" – @FrankFigliuzzi1 w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/jxyX9hF8Vm
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) May 11, 2022
Image via Shutterstock
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
![]() |