The next time a liberal journalist, academic, or family member tries to insist fear-mongering is a “right-wing media” phenomenon, show them a segment like this from MSNBC’s Deadline: White House. On Tuesday, former Senator-turned-bitter pundit and MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill (D-MO) seethed with hatred that former President Donald Trump is “even more dangerous” than Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini because at least they had “philosoph[ies]” they believed in whereas Trump only cared about himself.
The segment that came off like something produced by the Babylon Bee. Comparing Trump to Hitler has become more than a cottage industry, so McCaskill found a way to up the ante, saying she had “a very dangerous thread to” bring up between Trump, Mussolini, and, yes, Hitler.
“A lot of people have tried to draw similarities between Mussolini and Hitler and the use of the terminology like vermin and the – the drive that those men had towards autocracy and dictatorship,” McCaskill screeched.
She then made the pivot to Trump, arguing he’s “even more dangerous” because “he has no philosophy he believes in”, “is not trying to expand the boundaries in the United States of America”, and “not going for a grandiose scheme of international dominance.”
The bitter liberal just had to make a juvenile swipe at Republicans:
All he wants is to look in the mirror and see a guy who is president. All he cares about is selfish self-promotion…[H]e has actually said out loud it would be okay to terminate the Constitution…[T]he irony is all of these supposed conservative folks that have populated the Republican Party all stood around with their thumb in their mouth going, “well, yeah, okay, I guess so.” It’s – it’s bizarre.
Rewind to the start of the segment and fill-in host Alicia Menendez – the daughter of the corrupt Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) – read a New York Times piece bemoaning Trump’s rhetoric surrounding his 2024 campaign spells doom and even physical danger for both his political adversaries and average Americans.
“If Donald Trump becomes the 2024 nominee, which seems quite likely at this point, it won’t just be policy differences on the line. It will be the entire American experiment on the ballot,” a solemn Menendez claimed after reading from the piece interspersed with Trump clips meant to prove her point.
With the chyron reading “Breaking News; Fears Grow Amid Trump’s Embrace of Authoritarianism”, supposedly objective and nonpartisan Washington Post journalist Carol Leonnig had a cartoonish claim of her own, huffing that “it was clear that Donald Trump…was not the president for all Americans” in contrast to “all of them before Donald Trump” who “made an effort to unite the country, to try to – even though they may have been elected by one party’s faithful or another, still tried to encourage and enable and kind of, in essence, charm the other side”.
Was Leonnig in a coma during, say, Obama’s Lawrenceville, Kansas speech? Or Woodrow Wilson with the Espionage and Sedition Acts? Or Bill Clinton’s vicious spin team led in part by current ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos?
Menendez went to McCaskill with more fear-mongering and stoking of divisions, huffing that Trump (and thus his supporters) just wrong, but “the threat from within” with his supporters representing possible actors in “domestic violence extremism”.
“He is the one stoking fear. He is the one stoking violence around this country,” she added.
Moments later, Vanity Fair special correspondent Molly Jong-Fast made another predictable, Brian Stelter-like demand of her colleagues in the press that they need to be even tougher on Trump.
I would say what makes me the most concerned is that as we cover h:m in the mainstream media…Jay Rosen…journalism professor at NYU…talks about the stakes, not the odds...[T]he stakes here are American democracy, so it doesn’t necessarily matter what the polling is if you lose democracy. And I think that is a really important thing to keep thinking about as we cover him.
To see the relevant transcript from November 21, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
November 21, 2023
5:03 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Fears Grow Amid Trump’s Embrace of Authoritarianism]
ALICIA MENENDEZ: If Donald Trump becomes the 2024 nominee, which seems quite likely at this point, it won’t just be policy differences on the line. It will be the entire American experiment on the ballot. [INTRODUCES PANEL] Carol, talk about the evolution we have seen in Trump, in his rhetoric, how he used to go after the outsiders, still does, and now he says the greatest threat is coming from within.
CAROL LEONNIG: [MIC MUTED] That’s totally right, Alicia. When he was campaigning, Donald Trump often spoke about these threats outside the country, how we were going to build a greater wall and keep our country strong, make it strong again, make it better again by essentially another form of hyper nationalism, focusing on the country first. He talked about protecting, for example, Americans from having to fight in endless wars and he would work to stop that. Now, his rhetoric has moved more into the vain of rooting out what he described the other day as vermin inside the country, an internal threat. You know, I want to say that there was a weigh station in between his campaign in 2016 and 2017 and his campaign today. And that weigh station was, while he was President, it was clear that Donald Trump was edging towards this place that he is now, this dark place. The edge was he made clear he was not the president for all Americans. Most presidents, in fact all of them before Donald Trump, made an effort to unite the country, to try to – even though they may have been elected by one party’s faithful or another, still tried to encourage and enable and kind of, in essence, charm the other side and say I’m the president for all of you. Donald Trump made clear during his presidency that he actually didn’t like some of the people who didn’t support him and he rooted against them openly. And that is what led us to this place now where a person who is charged with 91 felonies is claiming he has to look out for the American public from some of its own citizens.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; NYT: Trump’s Vicious Rhetoric Against Political Opponents Sets Off Fresh Worries Among Autocracy Experts]
MENENDEZ: Claire, Donald Trump warning about the threat from within in actuality, he is the leader of the actual threat, the real threat coming from within. I know I don’t need to convince you of that. Christopher Wray said that domestic violence extremism, the biggest threat to the homeland. The DHS terrorism warning bulletin from May saying, “In the coming months, factors that could mobilize individuals to commit violence include their perceptions of the 2024 general election cycle and legislative or judicial decisions pertaining to sociopolitical issues.” He is the one stoking fear. He is the one stoking violence around this country. I don’t know, Claire, if it is irony or audacity that he would talk about the threat from within.
CLAIRE MCCASKILL: Well, it’s a little both. But let me even bring in what I think is also a very dangerous thread to this conversation. A lot of people have tried to draw similarities between Mussolini and Hitler and the use of the terminology like vermin and the – the drive that those men had towards autocracy and dictatorship. The difference, though, I think, makes Donald Trump even more dangerous, and that is he has no philosophy he believes in. He is not trying to expand the boundaries in the United States of America. He is not trying to overcome a neighboring country like Putin in Ukraine. He is not going for a grandiose scheme of international dominance. All he wants is to look in the mirror and see a guy who is president. All he cares about is selfish self-promotion. That’s the only philosophy he has, which makes him even more dangerous because he has actually said out loud it would be okay to terminate the Constitution to keep him in power. He said this. He actually said those words. And the irony is all of these supposed conservative folks that have populated the Republican Party all stood around with their thumb in their mouth going, “well, yeah, okay, I guess so.” It’s – it’s bizarre.
(….)
5:11 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Fears Grow Amid Trump’s Embrace of Authoritarianism]
MOLLY JONG-FAST: I would say what makes me the most concerned is that as we cover him in the mainstream media, we have to really talk about the – and this – a – Jay Rosen, he’s a – he’s a journalist – journalism professor at NYU, he talks about the stakes, not the odds.
MENENDEZ: Yep.
JONG-FAST: Right? The stakes. Because the stakes here are American democracy, so it doesn’t necessarily matter what the polling is if you lose democracy. And I think that is a really important thing to keep thinking about as we cover him.
MENENDEZ: Stakes, stakes, stakes, not the odds.
