all parties in the israel-hamas war are asking about that. and i will speak with the israel and palestine director of human rights watch about possible war crimes. also the big blue wave this week. what biden and democrats can take away from tuesday night's big election win. ♪ ♪ ♪ good evening. i am mehdi hasan. on saturday, president joe biden marked veterans day with a visit to arlington national cemetery in virginia. during his remarks, the president paid tribute to america's veterans and called them, quote, the steel spine of this nation. here is the message the former president, donald trump, chose to deliver last night for veterans day during a speech in new hampshire. >> the honor of our great veterans on veterans day, and we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. >> look, ever since donald trump made his way down that escalator and burst on to the political scene in 2015, we've grown used to his frequently unhinged and abuse of rhetoric. but tonight, i want to talk about a specific word used by trump there. vermin. that's not a word we often hear used in everyday conversation. in fact, it's a very specific where that carries a very specific historical connotation. the word was frequently used by not seized to dehumanize jewish people during the holocaust. for example, according to historical accounts, in 1930, nine adolf hitler told the czech foreign minister, quote, this vermin must be destroyed, the jews are our sworn enemies. this isn't the first time trump has been caught echoing the rhetoric of not seize and white supremacists. a few weeks ago, he said undocumented immigrants were, quote, poisoning the blood of our country. which, again, echoes the rhetoric of hitler -- similar lines in mein kampf. you have it. ex president and current front-runner for the gop nomination, not once but twice in the last few weeks, taking a page right out of hitler's nazification playbook. surely, the media must be all over this, calling out his dangerous rhetoric for what it is, right? sadly no. here's how the new york times took the donald trump remarks yesterday. the headline, read trump takes veterans day speech in a very different direction. i say red because they updated the -- veterans day speech, trump promises to root out the left. still not quite there. but it's a stark difference from the sanitizing they did the first time around. to be fair to the new york times, the same publication is out with some new and very important reporting on the very real dangers of a possible second trump term, especially when it comes to his immigration office. according to a bombshell piece that dropped yesterday, trump is planning an extreme expansion of the first term crackdown on immigration if he returns to power in 2025. quote, including preparing to round up undocumented people already in the united states on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled. yes, camps. that is not all, according to the times trump also promised to clamp down on illegal immigration. for example, during the second trump term, the visas of foreign students who participated in anti israel are pro palestinian protests would be canceled. u.s. officials abroad would be directed to expand ideological screening of these applicants, making it easier to block people that the trump administration considers to have, quote, undesirable attitudes. this is a man who doesn't just borrow the rhetoric and policies of dictators and demagogues, but openly admires and phrases them. again, he areas last night. >> president xi is like -- there is nobody in hollywood that can play the role of president xi. and the look, the voice. and kim jong-un had a good relationship with. he's a tough, smart guy. >> he loves him. that new reporting from the times, by the way, comes on the heels of a story brought to you on this program last week. as detailed by the washington post, trump and allies have already been hashing out specific plans to use the justice department to punish -- should he win a second term. and also to deploy the military against protesters on him in -- 2025. these reports should terrify each and every one of us. trump isn't hiding his authoritarian ambitions for a second term. from punishing his political opponents to locking up immigrants in camps, to deploying the military. all while echoing the hateful rhetoric of adolf hitler. we know exactly what we can expect if he retakes the white house in 2024. but hey, what was it about joe biden's age again? here to discuss more, jason stanley, a professor philosophy at yale university, also the author of how fascism works, the politics of us and them. jason, thanks for coming back on the show. let's start with trump's use of the word vermin. am i wrong to make the historical comparison to antisemitic propaganda during the not-so-years? >> no. i mean, this is -- this doesn't echo mein kampf, this is textbook mein kampf, except for an explicit mentioning of jews behind, left any antisemite we'll hear this from vocabulary directed against jews. but hitler himself was an antisemite, he took that jews were behind the international left, marxism, communism. but his real target was democracy, and anyone who was pro democracy or labor unions, trade unions, he labeled as marxists. this over broad use of marxist to target, basically, any political opponent, this is a familiar from fascism and the way you attack democracy. and of course, labeling you are political opponents vermin, yeah, and the knots is targeted their political opponents, they targeted people who are in incarceration and concentration camps, they targeted suspected communists, socialists as eternal enemies. and of course, labeling you are political opponents vermin, yeah, and the knots is targeted their political opponents, they targeted people who are in incarceration and concentration camps, they targeted suspected communists, socialists as eternal enemies. this is right out of mein kampf. >> jason, there seems to be some collective amnesia even among members of the liberal left about just how bad the trump administration was, and the idea that because we have survived one term of trump we could surely survive another. it won't be that had the second time around. there are guardrails. how bad do you think a trump's second term could be compared to the first? >> mehdi, you and i talked about this during the first trump administration. the way that people said it was -- he is just talking. as a result, when the coup came, when he attempted a coup, people were surprised, even though he was telling you he wasn't going to leave power. this is what is astounding about the vocabulary and rhetoric of authoritarians. nobody believes them. they tell you what they are going to do and nobody believes them. >> jason, let's talk about the other authoritarians. it is not just trump, there is a whole movement. listen to what republican national committee chair had to say today when asked about trump's remarks just this morning. >> are you comfortable with this language coming from the gop front runner? >> again, i'm not going to comment on candidates and their campaign messaging. >> campaign messaging now, that's what vermin is. jake, it is true to say, is it not, that there is no trump fascist threat without the constant enabling of the entire republican party? >> and that was true about the not sees as well. it's exactly the same structure. the conservatives, the traditional, right in the alt-right, they -- hitler thought this was just a mad man, they could control him. we have to remember that throughout the 1930s, it wasn't yet the final solution. it was, you know, hunting down communists, hunting down -- shutting down the media, turning everything into loyalty to the commander. this is exactly what happens. the conservatives talk about they could control the person who's very openly and anti-democrat fascist. unfortunately, there are anchors -- echoes of history right here. >> too many echoes. jason stanley, always a pleasure. thank you for your time. let's continue this conversation with congressman mark pocan, a democrat from wisconsin. congressman, thank you for coming back on the show. let's pick up where i just left off with jason stanley. we know republicans aren't taking the risks of trump's rhetoric seriously. they are happy to defend him. are democrats? would you call the ex president a fascist? >> thanks for having me, mehdi. i think clearly trump embodies everything that is against humanity. i have watched him since he's become president only get worse and worse and worse in the rhetoric. the rhetoric has gotten worse. i think if he came into office again you would see many fascist things happen under a second trump administration. i think we need to call him out, republicans are just plain afraid. all they do is play to their base. donald trump is successful with the most extreme elements in that base. therefore, donald trump is calling all the shots. i've said it before, it is not a political party for republicans anymore. it's a cult. a cult of personality. that is very dangerous. >> it's a cult of personality, and the personality is and incoherent, rambling, racist fascist. and yet, he is rivaling your candidate, your leader, president joe biden in the polls. in fact, in some of the battleground states, he is leading in the polls. joe biden is behind in some of those key states. and then you throw in some of the third party candidates who are running, thinking of running, robert f. kennedy junior, cornell west, jill stein declared this week for the green party. we know the damage she did in 2016. and maybe joe manchin. things are not looking good for joe biden, are they? >> right now, a year out, when barack obama was running for reelection, in his poll numbers were down, there were pundits that said he should drop out of the race. there is many parallels. i'm not as worried. i think at the end of the day, people are going to look at what we did, especially in those first two years when we had democratic majorities in the house and senate, with a white house rebuilding our nation's infrastructure, roads and bridges. water delivery systems, broadband. so much more. the most comprehensive climate change legislation, lowering the cost of health care and energy. we've got a lot to talk about. but right now, this is that period of time, just like it was for barack obama in a second term. >> congressman, let me jump in. i've made the bronco vomit comparison as well. it's a good comparison. having said, that barack obama -- for not, trump the personality cult, and he didn't have to worry about 3 to 4 independent candidates running third party. >> but romney could at least appeal to someone with a portion of a brain, right? donald trump has done nothing in four years to gain any additional support. in fact, he's lost. it places like wisconsin, when you look at suburban milwaukee, waukesha county in that area, those are fiscally conservative republicans who find donald trump reprints. if they are not necessarily going to go vote for donald trump again. maybe they will vote for one of these third party candidates. but i think at the end of the day, they are going to see you either have a choice of joe biden or donald trump. >> yeah. >> i think many of those folks are going to look at donald trump and not be able to stomach him for four more years. >> before we get a, break and we've got a lot more to talk about with, you but i do have to ask you right now about a looming government shutdown now just five days away. yesterday, republican speaker mike johnson, the new speaker, introduced a two tiered, laddered continuing resolution, quote unquote, to fund the government. democratic senator chris murphy called that approach today gimmicky. but he said he is, quote, open to what the house is talking about. there are no cuts or poison pill cuts involved in this resolution. are you open to it as well in order to prevent the shutdown? >> here is the problem with it. the house republicans have proven themselves and capable of governing. last week, we had to appropriation bills that we did. hundreds of amendments and they couldn't pass the bills at the end of the day. there are middle schools that have student councils that are more effective, and probably insulting middle schoolers right now, than the u.s. house representatives under republican control. if we give multiple dates that we would actually potentially have a closed down, and that would be a real problem. at least it is better than maybe what we saw in some past proposals, but it is still very problematic when you have the congress and that is still unable to function like this congress. >> congressman, please stick around. after a quick break, i do want to discuss what's happening in gaza with you. don't go away. ♪ shelves. shelves smart enough to see, sense, react, restock. so caramel swirl is always there for the taking. hi. i use febreze fade defy plug. and i use this. febreze has a microchip to control scent release so it smells first-day fresh for 50 days. 50 days!? 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