Abby Phillip Reminds Republican Governor That Writer Who Called Trump ‘Fascist’ Isn’t Liberal: ‘This Is a Conservative, By the Way’

CNN’s Abby Phillip tangled with New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who alleged an op-ed critical of Donald Trump written by a conservative is an example of the “liberal media” trying to distract voters.

The Atlantic’s Peter Wehner, who served in the George W. Bush administration, wrote that Trump’s recent demonization of his opponents as “vermin” reeks of fascistic rhetoric:

Trump’s rhetoric is clearly fascistic. These days, Trump is being “much more overt about becoming an authoritarian and transforming America into some version of autocracy,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at NYU, told PBS NewsHour. That doesn’t mean that if Trump were elected president in 2024, America would become a fascistic state. Our institutions may be strong enough to resist him, though it’s an open question. But Trump can do many things short of imposing fascism that can do grave harm to America.

Phillip read portions of Wehner’s column before asking Sununu for his reaction on Wednesday’s CNN NewsNight. Here’s how that went:

PHILLIP: He explicitly says in this piece at Trump’s rhetoric is “fascist.” Do you think that the former president – Trump – is bending toward fascism?

SUNUNU: No, look. When you look at articles like that, that is liberal media doing everything they can to distract from the fact that the left–

PHILLIP: This is a conservative. This is a conservative, by the way. This is someone who worked for a Republican president.

SUNUNU: I know. There’s a national effort to try to distract on the Trump stuff or anything any of the Republican candidates are going to say to distract from the massive amount of anti-Semitism you’re seeing out of the democrat party, the massive amount of people calling for a second Holocaust. And too many people in the media and otherwise not pushing back on that narrative. What we’re seeing in our colleges and our universities is very real. It is hateful. It is unprecedented. If you told me that you were gonna see this kind of stuff just a couple of years ago, I never would’ve saw it.

Phillip pressed on and asked Sununu if Trump’s “vermin” remark is “fair game” for criticism.

“Absolutely,” the governor conceded. “Don’t misunderstand me. I mean, Trump has a whole history here.”

Sununu has repeatedly insisted Trump will not be the Republican nominee in 2024. However, the former president remains the runaway frontrunner.

Watch above via CNN.