MSNBC Liberals Triple-Team Republican Tim Miller for Disagreeing GOP is ‘Fascist White Nationalist Party’
A battle raged on MSNBC between on-air talent who believe most Republicans are white nationalist fascists versus only many Republicans are white nationalist fascists versus they’re bad but “not the Taliban.”
On the latest edition of MSNBC’s Ayman, host Ayman Mohyedin asked his guests to weigh in on the idea that Democratic candidates relish — and in some case are boosting the chances of — extreme candidates winning Republican primaries.
SiriusXM host and MSNBC Daily columnist Dean Obeidallah set the terms of the debate by asking “First of all, Ayman, are there non far-right Republicans that I don’t know about? They’re gone.”
“Good point,” agreed the host.
Obeidallah said Democrats “should be running ads against the entire GOP and branding them what they are, folks. Today’s GOP is no longer a political party. It’s a white nationalist fascist movement that wants to turn its religious beliefs into the law of the land.”
He pointed to polling in which majorities of Republicans express a positive and patriotic view of Jan. 6, and the fact that “over 100 election deniers have won the GOP primaries this year.”
“So, look, saying ‘the reasonable Republican’ is saying ‘the reasonable Taliban member,’ they’re all extremists. Let’s be blunt about it. I think… the Democrats should be spending money to brand the GOP across the nation as the party of white nationalism fascism,” Obeidallah said.
National affairs correspondent for The Nation Joan Walsh agreed, to a certain extent.
“Yeah, I agree with Dean that most Republicans are fascists and that we are dealing — not most, but many are fascist. Fascist, and we’re dealing with a white nationalist party, increasingly,” Walsh said.
“But I don’t think this is the best use of resources,” Walsh added, and said that “in a year like this, we really can’t take the risk” of embracing election deniers as opponents.
Former Republican strategist and current MSNBC analyst Tim Miller disagreed, while still assessing Republicans as very, very bad. Asked if Democrats are “playing with fire” with this strategy, Miller took the opportunity defended Republicans — sort of:
Yeah, Ayman, I think they are. I think it’s bad karma. I think it’s also just incorrect for Dean to say that, like, every Republican is all the Taliban and fascist, I think is both a. unhelpful rhetoric and just not true. Look, you can – people can be bad and not be the Taliban.
…I think the Democrats’ strategists obviously need to do what they think is best to win these races. But I do think that they’re playing with fire in some of these cases. I think that it’s bad karma. And I think that we need to learn from 2016 where there were some in the Democratic faction who thought that we should run against Donald Trump. Donald Trump would be easy to beat. Let’s try to help Donald Trump. Well, we all saw how that turned out. So I just think that we got to be a little bit careful and be able to tell the difference between bad and existentially dangerous.
Mohyedin gave Obeidallah a chance to rebut Miller:
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Dean, I’m going to give you a chance to respond to this, since you are name checked by by Tim. I mean, I know you don’t believe that all Republicans are like the Taliban, but I do understand the analogy about the extremist shift.
DEAN OBEIDALLAH: Yes, it’s a movement. It’s a, are there are people in the movement that don’t agree with it? Sure. But Tim, here’s the thing I would say that the Republicans told us Muslims: if you don’t agree with the extremists then speak out. So where are the Republicans speaking up? Why don’t I see them on television denouncing the white nationalism, denouncing turning their religious beliefs, not denouncing January 6? I only see those people defending it and the rest of their silence, or let’s to believe that they’re silent because they disagree. Or they’re silent because deep down they actually agree. And they used to tell us, as Muslims, if we don’t speak out there, we’re going to assume you agree with it. So I hear Republicans have rallies denouncing Donald Trump, denouncing white nationalism, I’m going to believe they’re down with it because that’s what they did to my community as a muslim-American. That’s how I look at it, Tim.
Mohyedin went on to thank Miller “for letting us pile on you, my friend.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
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