The Trump administration's "dangerous" tactics armed one analyst on Tuesday.
Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security advisor during the Obama administration, discussed the administration's new stance on free speech during a new episode of the podcast "Pod Save The World." His comments come at a time when multiple administration officials, like President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, have cast doubt on free speech protections for left-wing groups following the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Several administration officials have also said that using words like "fascist" and "Nazis" to describe them contributed to Kirk's murder.
Rhodes responded to the assertions during the episode.
"For people like Kash Patel who've done nothing but pour toxins into the politics and societal health of this country for years to now be trying to use this to say that they're allowed to call us whatever they want...but then if we so much as point out what they're doing, that we are somehow guilty of incitement is the classic authoritarian playbook," Rhodes said. "That is what is happening here. They're trying to silence speech."
"They're trying to make it so you can't even describe accurately what they're doing," he continued. "It's not only hypocrisy, it's dangerous."