One of the most maddening things about the "fact-based" elitist media is how they cannot stand it when their favorite politicians are presented as extremists, but it's a "fact" that the right-wingers are extreme.
When Donald Trump called New York mayoral candidate a "communist" -- based on his talk of "seizing the means of production" and discussing "the abolition of private property" -- that was presented as a scandalous "Pants On Fire" lie by the press and their "fact checkers." But calling Trump a "fascist"? That's fair game.
On Sunday's Meet the Press, "moderator" Kristen Welker lunged for the extremes. She nudged Mamdani to repeat his smear that President Trump is a fascist. This wasn't a question designed to challenge the guest, or even elicit an answer. It was a request to repeat a smear for everyone to hear. Trump is like Hitler, eager to fill the gas chambers. It's a weird take when your guest hosted Hamas backers at his victory party.
Leftists hated that Trump and Mamdani were civil in the Oval Office. “In that press conference with President Trump, a reporter asked you whether you believe that President Trump is in fact a fascist, a word that you’ve used in the past,” Welker said. “You were about to answer. Then, President Trump sort of jumped in. And he said, ‘That’s okay. You can just say yes. It’s easier than explaining it.’ So, Mr. Mayor-Elect, just to be very clear, do you think that President Trump is a fascist?”
On @MeetThePress, @kwelkernbc cued up Zohran Mamdani to affirm he thinks President Trump is a fascist: “A reporter asked you whether you believe that President Trump is, in fact, ‘a fascist,’ a word that you’ve used in the past. You were about to answer and President Trump sort… pic.twitter.com/ghyYtmCygA
— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) November 23, 2025
Mamdani felt it necessary to remind everyone that he called Trump a fascist to his face:
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: And after President Trump said that, I said, "Yes." And –
WELKER: So you do?
MAMDANI: And that's something that I've said in the past. I say it today. And I think what I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the president was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement, about the politics that has brought us to this moment. And we also wanted to focus on what it could look like to deliver on a shared analysis of an affordability crisis for New Yorkers.
Even this wasn't enough for Welker. She had to double down in the Tyrant Olympics:
WELKER: You've also said in the past that President Trump has engaged in a, quote, "attack on our democracy." You've called him a “despot.” Do you still believe President Trump is a threat to the democracy?
MAMDANI: Everything that I've said in the past, I continue to believe. And that's the thing that I think is important in our politics, is that we don't shy away from where we have disagreements, but we understand what it is that brings us to that table, because I'm not coming into the Oval Office to make a point or make a stand. I'm coming in there to deliver for New Yorkers.
Welker wanted to elicit Mamdani's sincere answer that Trump is an existential threat to democracy. It doesn't matter that he's been elected president twice and we still have a democracy. Then they insist they are "fact-based" -- and not fear-based.
