Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is a "neo-fascist" who should be challenged more by the media to explain himself, journalist Carl Bernstein said Sunday on CNN's
"Reliable Sources."
Bernstein admitted his label is a "difficult term" and said he doesn't mean to say that Trump is akin to Hitler or Mussolini, but that he is expressing an "authoritarian, demagogic point of view," unique to the modern American presidency.
"I think he's a neo-fascist in the sense of his appeal and methodology that has to do with authoritarianism, nativism, incitement which we're seeing now," Bernstein said. "But I think you have to be very careful with this term, and put it into some real context."
Many of Trump's points about political correctness run amuck and other things that have angered his fans are legitimate, and he does have "real ideas," Bernstein said.
"I'm saying we in the press need to look at this as a moment to look at history, and how does Donald Trump have a debate about how he fits into the context of fascism or doesn't," he said. "But a new American kind of fascism that does not deny the real anger and grievances that many Americans feel."
Bernstein also said the protesters disrupting Trump's rallies are wrong to try to shut down a legitimate political exercise.
"The idea of shutting down speech is wrong, even though Trump is inciting in his words," Bernstein said. "There has to be restraint on the part of the protesters. Part of the problem that we have here is the methodology of incitement. Some of this is purposeful in Donald Trump's words, and we now have an intersection of celebrity culture and neo-fascism."
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