Lincoln Project Co-Founder Says She Doesn’t Understand How Republicans Became the Trump Party

The co-founder of the conservative Lincoln Project, Jennifer Horn, said on Monday that she didn’t think she would ever fully understand how the Republican Party became enthralled to President Donald Trump. Horn, a former Republican congressional candidate, spoke to MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman and harsh Trump critic, asked Horn about the apparent transformation of their party.

“When I went up and visited me of your events I saw people who I see now quoted on TV and they are unrecognizable,” Scarborough said.

“Their words are unrecognizable from the groups and the meetings that I sat through just four, six years ago. So I guess as we go into an RNC that looks like, you know, a South American strong man celebration of his family speaking at some event, have you come to grips yet, have you come to terms yet, with what happened to our Republican Party? Again, we’re not — I’m not talking about the Republican Party of 2000. I’m talking about even the Republican Party of 2014, 2015.”

“I don’t know if I will ever fully understand what happened and where it came from,” Horn said. “Like you, there were a lot of people in my life for whom I had not just respect but great affection and to watch them today protect and defend and try to advance a Donald Trump Republican Party is — it’s — a little bit heart breaking.”

“It’s shocking. But it doesn’t matter — it doesn’t matter why. It doesn’t matter anymore where this came from,” she said.

“What matters is that we stop it and that we make sure that we have a path going forward for our country that sends a clear and loud message to future generations that the United States of America completely and soundly rejected Donald Trump and the bigotry and racism and misogyny that came along with him.”

“So as I see some of my friends getting together to prepare for this RNC convention this week, I’m shocked, frankly, at the participation of some of them.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.