'I won't step in that trap': Historian clashes with Republican in heated CNN discussion

A presidential historian accused a Republican strategist on CNN on Monday night of trying to lay a trap during a heated discussion over the role political rhetoric played in the second assassination plot against former President Donald Trump.

The tense discussion devolved into shouting multiple times on CNN's "NewsNight" with host Abby Phillip.

Tim Naftali joined the panel along with Republican strategist Scott Jennings, who served in George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.

Naftali kicked off the discussion by contrasting comparisons between 2024 and 1968, a year in which Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in June, and President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew from the presidential race in March.

"There's no parallel to 1968," said Naftali.

He noted the House passed the Fair Housing Act following MLK's assassination, a pillar of the Civil Rights Act, because of a bipartisan majority.

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"The country came together," he said. "The elites of both parties recognized that we were on a knife edge and they did the right thing. What's unprecedented today is the inability of our elites to come together and realize that there's a red line that we're crossing. And that's the difference."

Naftali said that inability is what makes 2024 "dangerous." He also noted there's a "lack of seriousness in politics today that was not true back then." While many lawmakers of that era fought fascism together, he said he doesn't believe a sense of common purpose exists in 2024.

Naftali later said he decried "too much hate speech" in America — a statement Jennings honed in on.

"Give me an example," interjected Jennings. "What do you mean by hate speech? Because I want to specifically know. Because I think I know what it is. But I'm interested in what you think about this. Because I agree with you. I do think we have too much hate speech. Give me an example."

When Naftali pointed to the term "vermin" to describe political opponents, Jennings fired back, "So you think it's Trump's fault that he got shot."

"Scott, I won't step in that trap," said Naftali, trying to keep his cool. "That's not what I said. There's no place in this country for violence. But let's be honest about why we have so much tension in this country. When you dehumanize people you are using the rhetoric of the '30s. I'm not going to say which country in the 30s. But when you dehumanize people, you make it easier for disturbed minds to do the wrong thing."

Later in the clip, as Jennings tried to list out attacks from Democrats that Trump represents a threat to democracy, Naftali tried to interject and rebut the claim, leading to shouting.

"No, no, no! Why don't I get to finish?! Everybody gets to finish," yells Jennings.

"The constitution won't exist. There will be a bloodbath. He's going to be a dictator. When you effectively radicalize millions of people into believing that if an electoral outcome doesn't go our way, their no longer going to be living in the country they thought they were, what do you expect to happen?"

Watch the tense clip below or at this link.