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Katie Couric slammed for wanting 'deprogramming' of Trump supporters: 'Condescending and elitist'

Many conservatives slammed her as a 'partisan' and said she had retired from 'objective journalism

For TV journalist Katie Couric, who has built her decades-long career by maintaining an objective point of view, the highly-partisan remarks she made on 'Real Time with Bill Maher' could end up tarnishing her image as the non-partisan newswoman, according to critics. 

Last week, she raised quite a few eyebrows when she blasted the GOP's support for President Donald Trump amid his second impeachment battle. "It is so shocking. ... Not only are they not conceding, Bill, but their thoughts -- that there might have been some collusion among members of Congress, some are refusing to go through magnetometers ... to check for weapons, they're not wearing masks during this siege," Couric began.

She added: "I mean, it's really bizarre, isn't it, when you think about how AWOL so many of these members of Congress have gotten. But I also think some of them are believing the garbage that they are being fed 24/7 on the internet, by their constituents, and they bought into this big lie. And the question is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump." 

Couric who is best known as the longtime co-anchor of NBC's 'Today' and for a five-year run in the anchor chair on the 'CBS Evening News,' was seen openly cheering on Trump's impeachment during her 'Real Time' appearance. "If you commit a crime and then you move, does that means we're not going to charge you with a crime because you're moving out of the neighborhood? I mean, it's ludicrous," Couric told Maher, who expressed opposition to Trump's second impeachment. "I think there have to be guardrails on presidential power. He incited violence. ... He was really, really inciting violence. It is insane and you cannot let that stand."

She is currently slated to guest-host 'Jeopardy!' following the passing of Alex Trebek. Couric even fantasized about the "Hollywood ending" it would be if soon-to-be ex-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell "comes out as the hero" to convict the president.

Her rhetoric was not received well by her conservative critics who went on Fox News to blast her. "Katie is 'retired' from any 'objective' news duties," NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News. "She has been a partisan for a long time."

Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told the news outlet that it was "common among liberal journalists" to threaten "deprogramming" of Trump supporters. "Katie Couric making such offensive comments comes as no surprise, she is part of a media complex that deliberately stifled the flow of information negative to Biden in order to interfere in the election," Jacobson said. 

The Hill columnist and Fox News contributor Joe Concha made a similar observation when he talked about members of the media who have called for "deprogramming and silencing 75 million Americans." "This sort of rhetoric from Couric — which comes across as so condescending and elitist — underscores the divide between our media, which primarily resides in New York and Washington, and the rest of the country, which is moderate to center-right per multiple polls. And it’s why the industry is so mistrusted and frowned upon," Concha told Fox News.