Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann declared Friday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that President Donald Trump had brought back “McCarthy era” blacklisting.
Host Ari Melber said, “As we try to deliver on what we aimed for tonight, are the lessons going forward for the things that worked dealing with this Trump legal onslaught?”
Weissmann said, “Let’s learn from history is the way I look at this, which is all of us at this table were too young for the McCarthy era, but I think there are real lessons there for us, which is we are seeing blacklisting. We’re seeing the same kind of abuse, the same kind of fear, the same kind of obeying in advance. And I think the lesson if you think it can’t happen again, it is happening now. The idea that, oh, that’s something that’s just in our history and we’re well beyond that. No, that is what is happening now. Not just blacklisting, but people going along with it, not being the people who stand up.”
He added, “I think that is the lesson, which is if you want to be on the right side of history, you need to not be afraid. You need to speak. You need to be saying to people who want to use fear as a way to silence you, that you still have a First Amendment right.”
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