CNN’s Abby Phillip pulled the receipts, and a MAGA pundit ran out of talking points in real time. During a heated NewsNight segment, conservative radio host Ben Ferguson tore into California Governor Gavin Newsom for calling the Trump administration “authoritarians” and “fascists,” arguing that loaded language fuels violence.
Phillip paused the debate, then rolled a montage of Donald Trump calling his opponents “communists,” “Marxists,” and “fascists,” putting Ferguson’s logic in question. The supercut came right after Ferguson agreed that branding people with words like “fascist” can lead to violence.
The timing could not have been better. The segment aired amid a partisan brawl over rhetoric in the wake of a deadly shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas. The tragedy triggered a political firestorm, with critics blasting Democrats for demonizing immigration enforcement, and Democrats pointing back at years of hard-right fire from Trump and his allies.
Phillip pressed Ferguson on the core claim. If certain labels are too dangerous to use, should they be off limits for everyone. Then came the supercut. In clip after clip, Trump labels Joe Biden and Kamala Harris “radical left communist Marxist fascists,” and frames the election as a choice between “communism and freedom.” The juxtaposition undercut the idea that only one side’s words are dangerous. It also echoed earlier moments when networks used compilations to test consistency claims.
Ferguson tried to steer back to policy, saying that when leaders “demonize law enforcement,” it invites attacks on ICE. Phillip granted the general point about demonization, but did not let go of the double standard, asking if he wanted to ban those words outright or only when political opponents say them. The exchange left Ferguson threading a needle, condemning some rhetoric while giving his own side more room.
The broader fight did not start in the studio. Newsom has been at the center of a separate storm over immigration enforcement, from signing a California law that limits ICE tactics to ripping the administration’s approach. Conservatives say his language helped light a fuse before the Dallas shooting, while Newsom and his allies argue Republicans have normalized apocalyptic talk for years. The back-and-forth spread quickly across cable and social media, keeping the focus on how leaders talk about each other, and about law enforcement.
On one side, conservatives say words like “authoritarian” and “fascist” dehumanize officers and inflame unstable actors. On the other side, Phillip’s montage shows Trump deploying the same labels against his rivals, often to cheers at rallies. The point was less about a single politician and more about a mirror. If language is the accelerant, the standard has to run on both sides of the political aisle.
In the end, the clip did what good TV does: it cut through spin with something undeniable on tape. Whether the moment changes minds is another question. But for one night, a debate about dangerous words ended with the loudest voice in the conservative movement speaking for himself, on loop, and a MAGA guest left to explain why those words only count when someone else says them.
