According to MSNBC analyst Jen Rubin, the media has been far too kind to former President Donald Trump.
The press has “normalized” the GOP primary frontrunner, Rubin told “Velshi” host Ali Velshi on Saturday, and it’s failed to convey his “totalitarian” intent.
(Video: MSNBC)
“People I talked to do treat him as a quirky abstraction, as opposed to possibly the guy who’s going to help oversee the demise of democracy in America,” Velshi told Rubin.
“This speaks to how badly the mainstream media has covered him,” Rubin stated. “They have normalized him, they have cleaned up the rhetoric so he sounds in a clip or he reads in print much more coherent than he actually is.”
“It’s only very recently that the mainstream media has been reporting on his really shocking totalitarian claims,” she noted. “But of course, he’s been this way all along.”
In an attempt to be fair and with the preposterous presumption that Republicans aren’t completely unhinged, Rubin said with zero sense of self-awareness, the mainstream media has encouraged a “fascist cult.”
“I think because they have done such a bad job, because they have made an effort to treat the Republican Party like the Democratic Party, this notion that he’s not so bad, that he’s just kind of a cartoon character has set in,” she explained. “And that’s on the mainstream media, that’s on the failure to be honest and to side with truth rather than having this false balance.”
It’s important to go to Trump rallies, Rubin said, to “understand why he does have supporters.”
“These people are part of a fascist cult, and let’s be honest, there are a lot of them, but a lot of them doesn’t mean that they are behaving logically or rationally,” she informed Velshi. “To the contrary, we’ve seen in other fascist regimes that millions of people, sometimes even a majority of the country, become intoxicated with an authoritarian figure.”
“And these people are utterly irrational,” Rubin stated. “If you speak to some of them, they will spit back these bizarro conspiracy theories. They actually believe in all of the mumbo jumbo that he tells them. And so I think it would be a wake-up call about what these people are about.”
True Trump supporters, Rubin said, are lost. They can’t be saved. They are too deluded to be able to absorb the wisdom she proffers.
No, those MAGA monsters are too far gone to be “reeducated,” but it might be possible to save some of the misguided moderates and independents.
Democrats have to try, she said, because “democracy” is on the line.
“We are not going to convince people who are part of the cult to switch,” Rubin told Velshi. “As you say, they are impervious to any kind of data, any kind of information. But what you have to do if you care about democracy is mobilize the people who already know that he’s a danger and reaffirm and reeducate the people who are perhaps kind of flirting in the middle — they’re soft Republicans, they’re never Republicans — about the danger of going back to Trump.
“And I think that is the job between now on November, and that’s the challenge for the Biden Administration,” she added.
The absurdity of Rubin’s rant was not well-received on X.
“WTF….” one user wrote. “The left again gaslighting…. Absolute moron!”
WTF…. The left again gaslighting…. Absolute moron!
— damon emerson (@damon_emerson) January 20, 2024
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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