From the March 14 edition of CNN's CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin:
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CARL BERNSTEIN: I think the word neo is crucial because it means new and it's a peculiarly American kind of fascism. And fascism is about a maximum leader, who is contemptuous of real democracy -- of real democratic institutions -- contemptuous of the press and a free press, who extols torture and violence, who incites hatreds. And there's a great book, Sinclair Lewis' It can't happen here -- published in the '30s -- and we've never quite had a presidential candidate reach this level of prominence who embodies kind of what Sinclair Lewis was talking about in that book It can't happen here, because, well, maybe it could happen here. That's not to say that Trump hasn't said and isn't saying some very sensible things about policy, about criticism of past leaders and presidents, but he's a demagogue. Above all else, he's a demagogue, and he aspires to say, “I can do this, I can do that, I can wipe out this, I can wipe out that, to hell with democratic processes, let's get there the fast way. Let's put up the wall. Let's expel Hispanics, really. Let's keep out Muslims. Let's not like the other.”
