Jonestown Survivor Speaks

Geneva IN

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Mon, August 2, 2021 Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who survived the Jonestown massacre more than 40 years ago, compared former President Donald Trump to the late cult leader Jim Jones on Sunday. “There’s no question that you could compare Jim Jones as a charismatic leader who would bring his congregation together, force them to do things that were illegal, and then took 900 of them into the jungles of Guyana where, over the course of time, he then convinced them that they should die. I’ve never been able to say they committed suicide because I don’t think they were in control of their faculties, to be quite honest with you,” Speier told CNN’s Brian Stelter. “So you look at Donald Trump, charismatic leader, who was able to continue to talk in terms that appeal to those who are disaffected, disillusioned, and who were looking for something.” Speier called both men “merchants of deceit.” Just as Jones once did, Trump steers people away from facts and spins “destructive” narratives, she said. Trump’s extreme supporters, like those who attacked the U.S. Capitol and were looking to assassinate the vice president and the speaker of the House, are members of a cult, Speier said. “They have embraced Donald Trump, and they will do anything he wants, even if it is wrong, illegal and harmful to themselves,” she said.