The women of The View, Tuesday, eagerly promoted the idea that a fascist Donald Trump might bring a dictatorial reign to America. Promoting ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s new book, the ABC show’s announcer panicked: “Why is former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warning that President Trump could turn America into a fascist country?”
Previewing Albright’s appearance on the show, the announcer hyped: “Still ahead, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on why she says Donald Trump is the most anti-democratic president in American history.”
Co-host Sara Haines uncritically promoted the threat of fascism under Trump:
We want to talk about your book. So Fascism: A Warning. You write, “Some may view this book and its title as alarmist, good.” That's your quote. Coming from you, that should scare a lot of people. Are you actually afraid that America could become a fascist nation?
Trump has been president for over a year and the 2018 midterms are still scheduled for November 6, 2018. If you believe the media, the Republicans are headed for an electoral wipe out. So, it’s a little hard to see where the fascism comes in.
Albright vaguely explained how her book, which mentions Hitler and Mussolini, compares to current politics: “I'm worried about some of the steps that take place and the reason I wrote the book is really historical in terms of what happens in other countries.”
Joy Behar helpfully announced “attack on the press” and “lying” as examples of Trump’s connection to fascism. However, on January 5, 2016, Behar admitted that Ted Kennedy abandoning a woman to drown and Bill Clinton lying about sexual abuse don’t matter to her:
People have to understand, it's policy. Teddy Kennedy. Remember Chappaquiddick?.... A girl drowns and he abandons her and she drowned and women still voted for Teddy Kennedy. Why? Because he voted for women's rights. That's why. That's the bottom line of it in my opinion. I mean, I don't like either one of them, to tell you the truth, Teddy or Bill. They're both dogs as far as I'm concerned. But I still will vote for Bill Clinton because he votes in my favor.
So maybe her concerns about “fascism” ring a little hollow. Albright also appeared on Tuesday’s CBS This Morning to make yet more charges of modern fascism.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more:
The View
4/10/18
11:00
VIEW ANNOUNCER: Plus why is former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warning that President Trump could turn America into a fascist country.
11:16
VIEW ANNOUNCER: Still ahead, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on why she says Donald Trump is the most anti-democratic president in American history.
11:52
SARA HAINES: We want to talk about your book. So Fascism: A warning. You write, “some may view this book and its title as alarmist, good.” That's your quote. Coming from you, that should scare a lot of people. Are you actually afraid that America could become a fascist nation?
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I'm worried about some of the steps that take place and the reason I wrote the book is really historical in terms of what happens in other countries. The part that I have to say freaked me out was that in looking at Mussolini and Hitler and now what's happened in Hungary and Turkey and Poland and Philippines and Venezuela, these people were all elected, or they were put in constitutionally.
And only in the communist countries have there been revolutions to put the people in. So — And then Mussolini had this terrific statement which was that if you consolidate power by plucking a chicken one feather at a time, people don't notice. And so it is those steps and it's the normalization, frankly, of the kinds of things that are going on now that made me want to do a warning.
JOY BEHAR: And the attack on the press.
ALBRIGHT: Well, and that's exactly one of them. Part of it is an attack on the free press, a lack of respect for democratic institutions, thinking that you are above the law, using rallies and propaganda.
BEHAR: And lying.
ALBRIGHT: To get people excited and even moved to violence, not respecting the views of others. Those are the kinds of feathers, frankly.
