CNN’s John Avlon Blasts Biden’s ‘Semi-Fascism’ Remarks: ‘Not Helpful’ and ‘Not Befitting the Office of President’

Zachary LeemanAug 30th, 2022, 10:18 am
 

President Joe Biden referring to the “extreme MAGA philosophy” as “semi-fascism” was not helpful to Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, CNN’s John Avlon said Tuesday.

Appearing on New Day, Avlon also defended Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) distancing herself from the comments as she and others need to appeal to a broader base.

“The term ‘semi-fascist’ is not helpful, it’s not befitting the office of president,” Avlon said. “While you can absolutely call out the dangers to our democracy — but it makes perfect sense for someone like Sen. Hassan because, look, in New Hampshire, more than 40 percent of registered voters are Independent, another 30 and change are Republican. Democrats are the third category among registered voters. So, she needs to be able to reach out and that language doesn’t help her do that.”

Hassan previously said Biden “painted with too broad a brush” when he made his semi-fascism comments.

“I have concerns about attacks on our democracy. I have concerns that some people seem to think that violence is an appropriate way of resolving disputes in our democracy, but I think President Biden’s comments just painted with way too broad a brush,” the senator was quoted as saying, according to WMUR.

Biden’s comments were made to a group of Democratic Party donors.

“It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the—I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism,” Biden originally said last week.

The president also said this is “either the beginning or the death knell of extreme MAGA philosophy.”

Republican strategist and CNN political commentator Alice Stewart took her criticism further, accusing Biden of calling “half the country” fascists, which Avlon did push back on, saying it was “not half” of the country Biden was referring to.

“You can parse it how you want, but that’s the takeaway,” Stewart said. “Maggie Hassan was right. He painted the Republican Party as a bunch of fascists.”

Watch above via CNN

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Zachary Leeman

Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.