Watch Hillary Clinton's chilling warning about 'determined demagogue' Trump

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday to talk about why Donald Trump’s candidacy poses a continued threat to democracy—and the media’s crucial role in pointing that out. 

"I don't think the press has done enough to basically say, okay, the circus is here, you can watch the circus, but let's tell you what that means,” Clinton said. “Let's talk to people who have a real understanding of how dictatorships evolve." 

She also gave an easy-to-understand breakdown of how the MAGA movement’s fascism could become normalized.

“People did not take the kind of threats that we saw in the 1930s as seriously as they should,” Clinton said, pointing out that institutional checks and balances can only provide so much protection from “a determined demagogue” who enjoys the support of his political party and the richest members of society who are most interested in getting even richer.

Clinton, whose warnings about Trump went largely unheeded by media outlets in 2016, said she understood why people didn’t take her words “as gospel,” but that we now have years of evidence exposing Trump as a danger to our democratic processes. 

“Because someone who will not accept the validity of an election is someone who doesn't believe in elections,” Clinton warned. “He believes in his own power, his own right to power, and his demand that he be installed regardless of whether he gets the votes or not.”