During JD Vance’s latest appearance on Fox News, the vice president made a comment about incendiary rhetoric that might’ve seemed reasonable at first blush. Referring to his party’s critics, the Ohio Republican said, “What is it that you want them to do when you call them ‘fascist’?”
In the same exchange, Vance added, “This rhetoric is completely out of control, and it’s part of this entire network of violence that exists on the far-left.”
In other words, as the vice president sees it, accusations of “fascism” are so outrageous that they reflect the left’s broader radicalism.
I’m not in a position to know whether Vance is aware of this (or whether he cares), but as recently as last summer, Donald Trump described the Biden administration as a “fascist government.” After Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign, Trump proceeded to call then-Vice President Kamala Harris a “fascist” several times.
Here is Donald Trump calling Kamala Harris a fascist on 4 separate occasions. pic.twitter.com/dTlTGxnT6E
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 12, 2025
Is Vance under the impression that “this rhetoric is completely out of control,” too?
This keeps happening. In the aftermath of the deadly shooting that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, “You can’t call the other side ‘fascists’ and ‘enemies of the state’ and not understand that there are some deranged people in our society who will take that as cues to act.”
But not only has Trump repeatedly called Democratic leaders “fascists,” he’s also condemned his perceived political foes as “enemies of the people,” “the enemy within,” “threats to democracy” and “evil.”
Does the Louisiana Republican congressman not understand that there are some deranged people in our society who will take comments like these as cues to act? As recently as Wednesday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity told his viewers that he couldn’t find “a single prominent conservative voice in the country [who] even remotely wanted or was pushing to get Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air.” Trump wanted to get Kimmel taken off the air. In fact, as Hannity made those on-air comments, the president was celebrating the late-night host’s suspension while pushing for other comedians to be taken off the air. Maybe Vance, Johnson, Hannity and other Republicans have incredibly short memories. Maybe they’re playing dumb. Maybe they simply assume that voters won’t know better. Whatever the explanation, the more they talk about provocative rhetoric, the more it seems they’ve never even met the president.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
