From the December 9 edition of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show:
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RACHEL MADDOW (HOST): On that point -- and this is sort of a sensitive question -- I tried to address it last night on my show with some historical analogies so as to try to take it out of epithet territory, take it out of insult territory and ground it in basically political science. But fascism is a real thing. Fascism is a political construct that has given rise to real political movements that have both run countries and that have tried to run countries and that have have been substantive movements even in countries that we think of as being a lot like ours, France, Britain, since World War II. One of the hallmarks of fascism is that the party leader is the great leader who can do things by sheer force of energetic will. Characterized by willingness to toy with violence even in political settings, chauvinism, obviously xenophobia, different forms of racism or anti-Semitism. Is it unfair to invoke a concept that inflammatory and that weighted for this current political situation we've got with the front-runner on the Republican side?
DAN RATHER (FORMER CBS NEWS ANCHOR):: For me the answer to that is yes. I don't Think trump has reached that point yet. Don't misunderstand me, I'm going to be very clear. What he said about immigration and limiting immigrants, this is the best propaganda tool that ISIS has had in a very long time. It's also good news to the Democrats and Hillary Clinton. But directly answering your question, no, I don't think he's at that point yet. I think it is unfair to call him a fascist.
