Mehdi Hasan Calls Out Liberal Media for ‘Playing Down’ New Italian PM Giorgia Meloni’s ‘Ties to Fascism’: ‘Deeply, Deeply Depressing’

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan lambasted the “quote, unquote liberal media” for downplaying Giorgia Meloni’s “ties to fascism,” describing the news coverage as “deeply, deeply depressing to see.”

Meloni won 26 percent of the vote in Italy’s parliamentary elections in late September, positioning her to become the country’s first female prime minister. She’s been lauded on the right and denounced on the left for the far-right positions of her political party, Brothers of Italy, which has historic ties to other Italian neofascist parties and movements.

Hasan began his “mini-rant” segment on Sunday’s episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show discussing some of the conservative commentary about Meloni’s win, arguing that it was indeed fair to compare her to the World War II-era dictator Benito Mussolini because “she has praised Mussolini, currently echoes Mussolini, and runs a party that both includes Mussolini’s heirs and is itself an heir to the Italian Social Movement, which was formed by supporters of Mussolini in 1946,” quoting one of his own tweets.

How about comparing her to Mussolini because she has praised Mussolini, currently echoes Mussolini, and runs a party that both includes Mussolini’s heirs and is itself an heir to the Italian Social Movement, which was formed by supporters of Mussolini in 1946? How about that? https://t.co/UqO1hYtwJy

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 29, 2022

Hasan noted that he had “managed to squeeze all that relevant biographical information about Giorgia Meloni” into Twitter’s character limits, but “a lot of mainstream media pieces running into the hundreds or thousands of words weren’t able to do that, sadly.”

He had “expected” the GOP right wing to embrace Meloni, he continued, because “they are at best, to quote the president, semi-fascist themselves these days,” but “what has been so depressing, is just how much of the, quote unquote, liberal media, the mainstream media, are giving her a pass or playing down her and her party’s fascist roots, focusing more on the fact that she is female, and less on the fact that she is a fascist.”

“That has been deeply, deeply depressing to see,” said Hasan.

He read off several headlines, from The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Atlantic, Politico Europe, The New York Times, and other media outlets.

“Did you notice a trend yet?” Hasan asked his viewers, saying with obvious mockery, “It is not as bad as you think. This isn’t really fascism. Stop the hyperbole and hysteria. It will all be fine.”

“I couldn’t help but think that I had seen these hot takes before,” he said, bringing up media coverage before former President Donald Trump’s 2016 election win and a New York Times op-ed the month before the 2020 election that boldly promised “there will be no Trump coup.”

“Look, I have a humble suggestion for many of my colleagues in the, quote, unquote, liberal media,” concluded Hasan. “How about in the year 2022, we stop playing down, minimizing, whitewashing people who literally say or do fascist things? People who want to overturn elections and ban Muslims. People who, as in the case of Italy’s next prime minister, spout great replacement theory, while running a political party that has a direct connection back to Benito Mussolini himself? Can we try doing that? Please?”

Watch above via MSNBC.