Obeidallah and Guest Say Trump Copying Mussolini, Hitler in Attempt to ‘Make Martyr’ of Ashli Babbitt

Authoritarian expert and author of “Strongmen: Mussolini To The Present” Ruth Ben-Ghiat was on SiriusXM’s The Dean Obeidallah show this week, and said that Donald Trump is using a familiar playbook in attempting to make a martyr of rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was killed during the Capitol riot and breach.

“Hitler was actually copying Mussolini when he was doing this,” said the author, comparing them with Trump. “But the reason you want to make martyrs is that it keeps the Cause with a capital C going–it keeps the rage of your supporters’ going.”

Host Dean Obeidallah spoke with Ben-Ghiat in light of her op-ed at the Washington Post this week on the subject of “violent rhetoric among the GOP and its propagandists,” that she says will be integral to the right’s effort to “transform the country into an electoral autocracy.”

Obeidallah asked specifically about the push by Trump and his allies to put Babbitt out front as the only real victim of 1/6, an effort they have been increasingly loud about and which includes demanding the identity of the officer involved and calls for retribution.

Dean: I want to ask about what Trump is doing now in making Ashli Babbitt a martyr for their cause. I reminded people that after Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch [Coup] in 1923, 16 Nazis were killed and Hitler made them martyrs for the cause—he celebrated them, had marches for them…so why would trump and the GOP now be making Ashli Babbitt a martyr for their cause– what’s the benefit to that they see?

Ruth: It’s not it’s not a good sign–of course nothing Trump does a good sign. And by the way the first people to do the whole murder thing of the violent thugs was Mussolini—his “Blackshirts” [killed] were made martyrs and they were ceremonies for them so Hitler was actually copying Mussolini when he was doing this. But the reason you want to make martyrs is that it keeps the Cause with a capital C going–it keeps the rage of your supporters’ going. Sometimes we think that these leaders have an end game very precise design in mind and they actually often don’t, but they know they have to keep the followers inflamed by making them angry by making them angry and outraged. Then beyond that anything they do that’s violent again will be retribution and revenge. They play on very primitive emotions so having a martyr is very, very useful. And having a martyr it also goes with the Christian evangelical who have a framework for martyrs and things– so these things fused together.

“Authoritarians use propaganda and corruption to get their people to see violence differently,” Ben-Ghiat wrote in her editorial. It is a concept a lot of people discuss.

Babbitt was killed by the only shot fired during the Capitol riot, as she attempted to breach the doors and makeshift barriers blocking entry to the Speaker’s Lobby, which were being guarded by Capitol officers as the mob attempted to violently bash the entry down with blunt instruments.

Ben-Ghiat mentions Babbitt in the editorial, saying that “Trump called for the public naming of the Capitol Police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 insurrection, claiming, ‘If that were on the other side, the person who did the shooting would be strung up and hung.'”

Watch above via SiriusXM.

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