'They're maniacs': Former GOP lawmaker unloads on Trump supporters for making unhinged threats

Former Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) told CNN's Briana Keilar on Monday that he is fed up with hardcore Trump supporters who are constantly leveling death threats against the twice-impeached former president's GOP critics.

While reacting to the death threat sent to Rep. Adam Kinzinger's (R-IL) family, as well as the hostile reception given in Texas to Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Rooney did not hold back.

"I've seen these people up close and personal," Rooney said. "After I wrote the op-ed after the election that the Republicans needed to accept the results and move on, I got six death threats and one of them even included my daughter. So these people won't stop at anything. They're maniacs."

Rooney was then asked how representative these fanatical supporters were of the GOP voting base overall.

"I think it's pretty big," he said. "You guys [are] reporting figures in the 50 percent... range that adhere to Trump and deny the election. As long as that persists, the Republican Party of Reagan doesn't exist... This is the party of Trump."

The former GOP lawmaker was also asked about what it meant to have Trump's grip on the party being seemingly unbreakable.

"It seems to be that there's a base of people that are vocal," he said. "They are fanatics, in my opinion, and fairly lawless, that will do anything to defend Trump and to defend the... chaos that they have justified like January 6."

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