'It's dangerous': Expert warns MAGA 'conditioning' has crept into schools and homes

NBC News reporter Vaughn Hillyard spent several months traveling the country asking fans of former President Donald Trump their attitudes and views, and the results, according to MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, were shocking.

Wallace began their interview Tuesday segment by citing lawyer and Howard University Civil Rights chair Sherrilyn Ifill, who argued that autocracy is contagious.

"It's one of those things that stopped me in my tracks," Wallace said of the phrase, "because it's so true."

Hillyard showed viewers footage of some of the more shocking interviews. Several people confessed they didn't care if thousands of people in Ukraine were killed by Russia's invasion.

"They're frankly, I'll use the word mean, they're not nice," Hillyard said. Hillyard said eight years ago he used to be able to make a civil conversation with people who did not share his political views. "I can't get there with so many people now."

The number of people with whom Hillyard cannot find common ground is rapidly growing, Hillyard said.

"It's an anger, it's a resentment," he said. "I don't know where it is heading, but if we ignore this over the next nine months, I don't think we're doing any of us any good."

Hillyard urged directing the political conversation not at public figures but at friends, family and neighbors.

"These are people who go to our churches, our schools and are in our communities," Hillyard said. "They are our family members they are our loved ones....we've denied the entanglement of conspiracy theories, but it's dangerous if we don't have a true conversation about the conditioning."

See the full conversation in the video below or at the link here.