The word "claque" refers to a group of people who are hired to applaud or cheer loudly in order to show support or approval, especially at a performance or public event. Full definition
Daniel Joseph Martinez, Museum Tags: Second Movement (overture); or, Overture con Claque (Overture with Hired Audience Members), 1993, for the 1993 Whitney Biennial. (artnews.com)
The book is excitedly cheered by the usual claque, including Karen Armstrong (A History of God), Elisabeth Shussler Fiorenza of Harvard, and, to be sure, Bishop John Spong. (firstthings.com)
It is a time of candor when thoughtful people who do not have a racist bone in their body are exposing the lies of a civil rights establishment and its liberal claque that have no legitimate claim on the luminous moment that was the civil rights movement of Dr. King. (firstthings.com)