Rachel Maddow denies antisemitism on left as dangerous as White nationalism on right: 'No parallel'
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow claimed there was "no parallel" between antisemitism on the far left and White nationalism seen on the far right, during an appearance on the "Behind the Table" podcast.
Maddow appeared on the behind-the-scenes podcast for "The View" after being a guest on the political daytime talk show on Tuesday. While there, co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin referenced Maddow's book about fascism in the 1930s to ask about modern-day antisemitism on the right and left.
"We remember Charlottesville, but I have to be honest. I'm also deeply afraid of some of the left-wing antisemitism I've seen," Farah Griffin stated. She asked Maddow if she was also concerned about antisemitic protests on the left.
"There could be antisemitism emerging from both sides," Farah Griffin stated. "Are you fearful of that? And how do we address it as a society knowing that we're just 80 years out from the Holocaust?"
Maddow said that she didn't believe there was a parallel between antisemitism on the right and the left.
"It's one of those situations where there isn't a mirror image," she replied.
The MSNBC host argued that a "neo-Nazi, super-racist, White supremacist movement" on the right was not a new threat. She claimed that the real danger was having a U.S. president support it, implying former President Trump had done so.
"The danger," she said, was having people in positions of power, like in the White House, "inviting that in" and "giving their stamp of approval."
"That sort of accelerant is super dangerous. I think there's just no parallel to that on the left. I don't think you see President Biden [endorsing that]," she continued.
Before this exchange, Farah Griffin had brought up how the former president had invited a Holocaust denier and White nationalist to Mar-a-Lago in 2022, which Republicans criticized him for.
Maddow argued that while there's freedom of speech in the U.S., that doesn't mean someone with racist views should have their views elevated or supported by someone in "a political party or somebody in a high political office."
Unlike Trump, she argued President Biden and the Democratic Party had taken a "responsible" approach to the antisemitic protests over the war in Gaza.
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"The Democratic Party, and Joe Biden, personally, and the Biden administration, [are] being responsible about this stuff. They're saying, 'Yeah we don't stand for this extremism on our own side or on the other side.,' With Trump, it’s quite the opposite," she claimed.
Trump has repeatedly condemned the anti-Israel protests around the country, calling them a "disgrace" and pinning the blame on Biden.
President Biden also condemned the violence and antisemitism at these protests, saying, "There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students."
The Biden administration is facing criticism from a top Republican who questioned why zero arrests were made after thousands of anti-Israel protesters raged outside the White House earlier this month and allegedly vandalized two monuments.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung responded to Maddow's claims in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"Maddow is so disingenuous that she can’t even denounce violent antisemitism from her own side. Meanwhile, there has been no bigger friend and ally to the Jewish people and Israel than President Trump and his unimpeachable record reflects that," he said.
During her appearance on the political talk show this week, Maddow and co-host Joy Behar worried that former President Trump might take their liberal talk shows off the air if he became president again.
"I think that he is so vindictive that he will go after, however he has to, through the IRS maybe, or even through sponsors, to get us off the air maybe, or you. How seriously should we be taking that?" Behar asked.
Maddow said she wasn't confident that any critic of Trump in the U.S. was "safe" from his punishment.
"I think it’s bad to have somebody saying, ‘Give me as much power as you can in this country so I can use it to go after other Americans, so I can use it to go after these subhuman internal enemies and I will destroy them.’ That’s just not a good system for anybody, and I don’t think anybody is safe if that’s the sort of basis on which he wants to get more power," Maddow said.