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Though everyone suspected foreign terrorists were responsible for the attack, the culprits turned out to be American white nationalists who were upset about a possible trade deal with India. The memorandum signing was rescheduled, and a shaken Elizabeth summoned three former secretaries of state — Gen. Colin Powell, Madeline Albright and Hillary Clinton — to seek their counsel about how to handle messaging.
Elizabeth’s predecessors agreed that her remarks had to reassure the country and remind citizens that the United States’ strength lies in its core democratic values. The terrorists “attack what has made American great, and still does, and that is our diversity,” Clinton noted, in what may or may not be a sly dig on President Donald Trump’s favorite slogan. (For the record, here’s what executive producer Lori McCreary had to say about the line: “What it is is a statement about what’s happening in our show, because our White House has been attacked by nationalists that we think are home-grown nationalists. So it really is a statement about that fact and what happens when people start getting nervous about people that look ‘other’ being part of all of us.”)
Madam Secretary Premiere Recap Season 5 Episode 1In general, Clinton, Albright and Powell suggested that Elizabeth talk about what unites Americans, and that’s exactly what she did. In a speech at the memorandum signing, Elizabeth called nationalism “the existential threat of our time” and made it clear that nationalism is not patriotism, “but a perversion of it.
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