'Says something very ugly about them': Journalist warns not to laugh off Trump threat

The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday to smack down mockery she received earlier this week from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

During the interview, host Joe Scarborough noted the irony of the WSJ editors ridiculing Applebaum for comparing former President Donald Trump's rhetoric to Adolf Hitler's in the same week that former Trump chief of staff John Kelly publicly came out and said that Trump met the definition of a fascist.

Applebaum speculated that the Journal's editors could only ridicule warnings about Trump because to do otherwise would be too psychologically painful.

"I think this is essentially a way of people saying, 'I'm going to vote for this guy for whatever reasons, because I think he's going to lower taxes, or because he's in my political camp and I need a reason to do it... and the reason I'm going to give you is Harris is just as bad,'" she said. "They can't take it seriously because if they did, it says something very ugly about them. And I think that's the stage that we're at now."

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Scarborough then noted that Applebaum used to be highly regarded among conservatives for her work in documenting atrocities committed by communist regimes such as the former Soviet Union.

"It's not like they're attacking a longtime political foe," Scarborough said of Applebaum's critics. "They're attacking someone who has dedicated her life to the very things that they once stood for."

"I used to write for the Wall Street Journal editorial page in living memory," Applebaum added.

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