CNN political analyst defends Biden’s use of ‘semi-fascism’ to attack Republicans

CNN political analyst and PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López defended the use of the phrase "semi-fascism" to describe Trump-supporting Republicans in a Saturday night interview on CNN Newsroom.

The analyst spoke about "President Biden’s decision to use the term ‘semi-fascist,’ and then in his prime time speech use the term ‘authoritarian’ to say the former president as well as some of his allies are promoting authoritarian leaders."

Barrón-López claimed that "historians and scholars" who have "studied authoritarian and fascist movements, say that that exists within factions of the GOP in this country today."

She said that these historians and scholars "point to the encouragement of political violence, they point to the fact that Trump and some 60% of the GOP nominees that won their primaries over the summer are election deniers."

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Barrón-López also noted, "They point to the fact that Trump himself has — is implying that he’s condoning violence by saying he would pardon January 6th insurrectionists as well as the fact that even to this day the former president just this week said that the election results should be overturned, that he should be declared legitimate winner."

She asserted that academics not only condone the terminology, but have been wanting Biden to use it for some time, saying, "There’s a lot of historical lineage there and scholars have been waiting for the current President Biden to use those terms - to diagnose it as that."

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MSNBC historian Michael Beschloss, who met with Biden along with other historians over the summer, said Thursday that President Biden’s speech in Philadelphia was inspired by great presidential speeches before two of America’s biggest wars.

Beschloss claimed that he and fellow historians told Biden, "This is like 1860. This is like 1940. You have to talk about the large issue in the room, and just as Lincoln gave the House Divided speech, just as Roosevelt gave a speech on the state of the union about the Four Freedoms, as you well know, 1941, here is the time when President Biden has chosen."

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Beschloss previously made headlines in mid-August when he called upon Americans to "vote like your life depends on it" during an appearance on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart."