'Congressman stop it!' Trump ally's 'incitement' rant dismantled with JD Vance's own words

A Republican congressman's rant defending President Donald Trump was interrupted by another CNN panelist who quoted Vice President JD Vance and slain activist Charlie Kirk to disprove his point.

Vance encouraged supporters to file complaints with employers for anyone who criticized Kirk online and Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened to prosecute anyone who criticized conservatives with what she called "hate speech," and CNN's Audie Cornish challenged Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) to justify those threats.

"This is where I sit," said Zinke, who previously served as Trump's interior secretary. "There'sa difference between expressionand hate. There is a differencebetween by a threat, a violent,violent threat, and, forinstance, if I threaten to killyou and I project that ... There are lines and I agreewith Pam Bondi, and thereare results of of ignoring, forinstance, all right, a newsoutlet called President Trump3,000 times a Nazi – 3,000 times."

"He's not a Nazi," Zinke added. "You may callhim a lot of things, you know,braggadocious. You may call hima lot of things, but he's not aNazi."

Cornish asked whether calling Trump a Nazi was an incitement to violence, and he suggested that it might be.

"You know what?" Zinke said. "I thinkthat's flaming – what you'redoing is you are causing a riftwhere there isn't one there, andfalsely accusing someone of being a Nazi."

Cornish reminded the lawmaker that Trump's critics had a free speech right to point out how he reminds them of a Nazi, which he grudgingly conceded, and Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright stepped in to set him straight.

"Congressman, stop it," Seawright said. "Hisown vice president called him a Nazi, so we can't we can't wecan't pick and choose whenit's convenient. But can I justshare something with you from Charlie Kirk? 'Hate speech doesnot exist legally in America.There's ugly speech. There'sgross speech, there's evilspeech, and all of it isprotected by the First Amendment.'"

"So I think we'rehaving a conversation aroundconvenient speech versus what'sfree speech," Seawright added, "and I think that'swhere people like me arefrustrated. It's good for some,but not good for others,including the president."

- YouTubeyoutu.be