MSNBC's Brian Williams was joined by author and professor Timothy Snyder on Friday night where Williams used his guest's 2017 book On Tyranny to argue that the United States under President Trump is slipping into authoritarianism. The proof? Trump-named towers, military parades and federal law enforcement in Portland.
Williams praised Snyder's allegedly prophetic book, "Your book enumerates so much of what we've seen, and I should hasten to add before we saw it, buildings with the leaders' name on them, military parades and on and on, it also enumerates the sight we have now seen in Portland, Oregon, militarized, all but anonymous, camouflaged federal agents, in quotes, when they first went to work grabbing people into unmarked vehicles, I know that got your attention."
Snyder, who has been calling Trump a fascist long before the feds went to Portland or Trump's Fourth of July military parade inspired by the French, naturally agreed that his book provided such a warning. He then compared federal law enforcement to the KGB:
I mean the question is does the land of the free need a KGB? I would say the answer is no. The United States of America does not need a secret police. We do not need a police force which appears without insignia, which doesn't identify itself, and which pulls random people off the street. That's the nightmare of an authoritarian or totalitarian state.
Except they aren't secret-- if they were MSNBC would not be talking about them alongside video footage of them--, they did wear their insignia, and the people arrested weren't random.
When Bill Clinton was president, liberal networks went nuts when people compared the federal government to totalitarian goose-steppers, but the parties have switched.
Snyder then went on to compare detention centers in the Untied States and the people who staff them to the people concentration camps and the people who ran them, "History tells us that the people, the men who staff these kinds of organizations, are very often people with experience in lawless zones. That means concentration camps or places like our detention centers."
Ignoring all the instances of violence, Snyder claimed:
And another thing which is concerning is that all of this is taking place not on the base of law but on the basis of a conspiracy theory. The president mouths dangerous words like anarchists and so on and terrorists. That's all a conspiracy theory. Nothing like that is happening in the United States. These are historical reasons to be very concerned.
Snyder concluded by declaring, "We can still talk about it, and we can still stop it, and we should do the right thing before it's too late."
This segment was sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.
Here is a transcript of the July 31 show:
MSNBC
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
11:36 PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Your book enumerates so much of what we've seen, and I should hasten to add before we saw it, buildings with the leaders' name on them, military parades and on and on, it also enumerates the sight we have now seen in Portland, Oregon, militarized, all but anonymous, camouflaged federal agents, in quotes, when they first went to work grabbing people into unmarked vehicles, I know that got your attention.
TIMOTHY SNYDER: Yeah. I mean the question is does the land of the free need a KGB? I would say the answer is no. The United States of America does not need a secret police. We do not need a police force which appears without insignia, which doesn't identify itself, and which pulls random people off the street. That's the nightmare of an authoritarian or totalitarian state. That's a line that we should not be crossing. We should also be concerned about where this comes from. History tells us that the people, the men who staff these kinds of organizations, are very often people with experience in lawless zones. That means concentration camps or places like our detention centers. It tells us that they are very often people of experience defending a border or working at a border, which again is the case here.And another thing which is concerning is that all of this is taking place not on the base of law but on the basis of a conspiracy theory. The president mouths dangerous words like anarchists and so on and terrorists. That's all a conspiracy theory. Nothing like that is happening in the United States. These are historical reasons to be very concerned. This is why in the book I said be wary of paramilitaries and also be reflective if you must be armed. These are things we should be keeping in mind. We of course can see the dangers of this. We can still talk about it, and we can still stop it, and we should do the right thing before it's too late.
