The journalists at CBS This Morning on Tuesday donated over seven minutes of air time to Madeleine Albright’s shameful attempt to claim that Donald Trump is turning the United States into a fascist regime. Co-host Bianna Golodrygra introduced the liberal ex-Secretary of State by touting her new book Fascism as a warning “that contemporary leaders are turning to the same tactics used by fascists like Hitler and Mussolini nearly a century ago.”
Get it? After talking about Nazis, Communists and other genocidal murderers, Norah O’Donnell quoted the book: “If we think of fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at the scab.” “What has Trump done,” O'Donnell wondered?
As to how Trump has connections to Hitler and others, Albright linked: “I think part of the issues here, first of all, he's attacked the free press which is central to having a democracy.”
Finally, co-host John Dickerson pushed back:
Republicans would say, "Look, he won an election, the American people elected him." And what his critics will do is the minute he does something they don't like, they say he's a fascist, and that overstates the case.
After all this, Albright tried to dance away from the premise of her book Fascism. But it came away sounding like Trump may not be a fascist-fascist. He’s just very similar to those dictators:
I'm actually not saying he's a fascist. I'm saying that there are certain elements of the kind of behavior that he has that reminds me of a variety of issues that have taken place. But I think that this is not about just this election. This is about what is going on in our society in terms of it respect for democratic principles. I think Trump is the most undemocratic president I have ever seen in American history.
How transparent is what Albright is doing? This is how the liberal talk show The View introduced Albright a few hours later: “Plus why is former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warning that President Trump could turn America into a fascist country?”
It’s rare to say this: But the women of The View know what’s going on.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more:
CBS This Morning
4/10/18
8:33:07 to 8:40:27
7 minutes and 20 secondsBIANNA GOLODRYGA: Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is warning of a looming worldwide political threat. During her career in public service, Albright met with controversial political figures including former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. Albright argues in her book Fascism: A Warning that contemporary leaders are turning to the same
tactics used by fascists like Hitler and Mussolini nearly a century ago. She writes, quote, "We should be awake to the assault on democratic values that have gather strength in many countries abroad and is dividing America at home."Secretary Albright is joining us now with this book which is so important and comes at such a pivotal time in our country. I would say the world, as well. You talk about your family escaping Czechoslovakia when the Nazis invaded only to escape once again once a communist came to power. Talk about any similarities that you see now percolating that obviously you went through and the world went through nearly a century ago.
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NORAH O’DONNELL: So, you're talking about relentless power grabs essentially. So, who is doing the appeasement? What can the world do?
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT I think we're normalizing some of this and thinking this is just a step, and what is really happening is that there are leaders that are reacting to something that is happening within societies. People are not happy. That's for sure. Some as a result of technology, and they've lost their jobs. Some as a result of immigrants coming into their countries. And these leaders are grabbing power by identifying themselves with one group, and then —
O’DONNELL: With fear.
ALBRIGHT: With fear. And also kind of excluding the individual rights of other people and being above the law and undermining democratic institutions.
JOHN DICKERSON: So, who's missing the signals here? Is it the American government, American senators, the President? Is it Europe? Is it the populations? Who are the ones missing the signals?
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O’DONNELL: I want to read from your book. Because I think you hit that point when you write, "If we think of fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at the scab." What has Trump done?
ALBRIGHT: I think part of the issues here, first of all, he's attacked the free press which is central to having a democracy. He acts as though he's above the law. He has, in fact, used kind of rallies and propaganda and provided a lot of simplistic answers to questions and does not respect the rights of others.
O’DONNELL: Yesterday he called from inside the cabinet room, he called the FBI raid on his personal attorney an attack on our country.
ALBRIGHT: I find that ridiculous. And it's one of those things where as I said, we can't have a leader that feels that he is above the law. The law and the rule of law is the most essential part of a democratic system.
O’DONNELL: Can I get your take on some of the top foreign policy challenges for this president?
DICKERSON: Well, let me push back briefly on that which is Republicans would say, look, he won an election, the American people elected him. And what his critics will do is the minute he does something they don't like, they say he's a fascist, and that overstates the case.
ALBRIGHT: I'm actually not saying he's a fascist. I'm saying that there are certain elements of the kind of behavior that he has that reminds me of a variety of issues that have taken place. But I think that this is not about just this election. This is about what is going on in our society in terms of it respect for democratic principles. I think Trump is the most undemocratic president I have ever seen in American history. And so that's what worries me. But I do think that we all need to pay attention, which is why I'm -- this is a warning. That's what the book is about.
O’DONNELL: When it comes to the national security of the United States, let's talk about that. President Trump has set up what appears to be, is going to be a global summit, or I should say, a summit with the leader of North Korea. You've been there. What are the stakes there in meeting one on one with Kim Jong-un?
ALBRIGHT: Well, the stakes are very high. I'm actually glad that there is some desire to have diplomatic talks. But I did go there. It took an awful lot of preparation. You don't just kind of show up. We have been trying to figure out a variety of things to do about North Korea. The former Secretary of Defense, Bill Perry, did a complete review, all kind of things. So what worries me is the lack of preparation and a lack of understanding of the terms.
O’DONNELL: Should we believe Kim Jong-un when he says he's ready to denuclearize?
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