Newsmax Guest Rewrites Definition of Fascist to Defend Italy’s New Leader: ‘Hitler Was Not a Fascist, Hitler Was a Socialist’

Newsmax’s John Bachman Now brought Words for Warriors author and podcast host Sam Sorbo on air Monday to discuss far-right leader Giorgia Meloni’s victory in Italy’s elections on Sunday.

“All right. So this is a glass ceiling being shattered, for a first time for women. Where are all the liberal feminists out there celebrating this milestone?” asked host John Bachman.

“They are fully displaying their hypocrisy. And I think it’s a very sad thing because this is really an amazing, phenomenal day. Brava! Brava! Giorgia Meloni! I’m so happy I’ve been speaking Italian all morning,” replied Sorbo, who is also the wife of actor Kevin Sorbo.

“And frankly, what we see here is we don’t see neo-fascism because that is not at all what this is. The Democrat Party has more in tune with the fascist agenda than anything conservative,” Sorbo continued trying to brush aside Meloni’s party’s historical ties to neo-fascists.

“And so we really ought to understand that. In fact, that’s partly what my book, Words for Warriors is about. I wrote it because they’ve changed the definition of fascism to mean populism,” Sorbo continues, adding:

And that’s not what fascist is, fascism has everything to do with socialism. That’s why Mussolini joined with Hitler during World War II. And Hitler was not a fascist. Hitler was a socialist. Mussolini was a fascist. And that is not at all what we’re seeing in Italy today.

While Sorbo’s comments are a headscratcher, as no historian would deny the fascist, totalitarian nature of Nazism, her condemnation of Mussolini is also problematic while trying to defend Meloni.

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy repeatedly embraced heirs of Mussolini and fought for “streets be named in honor of Giorgio Almirante, a former fascist official and secretary of the Italian Social Movement, in several cities,” notes Foreign Policy.

Additionally, Melon “in 1992 at the age of 15, joined the youth wing of the Social Movement, a party of fascist nostalgists founded by officials from Mussolini’s army. They made no secret of admiring Mussolini and his views but didn’t want to bring his regime back. Their motto was “Neither deny nor restore”—advocating participation in democratic life based on Mussolini’s ideas without wanting to organize a coup to restore fascism,” Foreign Policy notes of Meloni’s admiration for Mussolini.

Watch the full clip above via Newsmax

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