In recent news, it wasn’t uncommon to hear liberals throw the name Benito Mussolini around for a cheap comparison to whatever they disliked about President Trump. But MSNBC’s The Weekend: Primetime took it to the next level in their conversation with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen, asking her where she would rank Trump on a scale from one to the Italian dictator. And her answer was not surprising, given where she was.
In her book, Ben-Ghiat analyzed the rise and fall of Mussolini – while using it to predict Trump’s own trajectory. As absurd of a concept as that seemed, MSNBC’s hosts were all over it, raising a series of questions that fully played into the author’s narrative.
Far-left commentator Molly Jong-Fast was the first to bring Trump specifically into the conversation, asking:
I wondered if you could talk us through – we've talked a lot about the authoritarian leanings of Trump and Trumpism. I wonder if you could talk to us about what you think are the most useful things that people who care about democratic norms should be doing right now?
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***The complete post is on NewsBusters***
