Rachel Maddow devoted another show on MSNBC to painting Donald Trump as a so-called “strongman.” In this segment, she tried to link the firing of Maurene Comey from the Justice Department and the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk to claim Trump is following a dictator’s playbook.
Maddow claimed:
“Today, there’s headlines in the news about a new lawsuit brought by Maurene Comey. The reason her last name is familiar is she’s the daughter of Trump enemies list headliner James Comey, the former FBI director. James Comey’s daughter has filed this new lawsuit, which makes a pretty compelling case that she was in fact fired from her job at the Justice Department because and only because she is James Comey’s daughter and James Comey is on the enemies list. And, you know, hey, once you’ve got an enemies list, no reason to keep it short.”
Maurene Comey was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, working in the Public Corruption Unit — one of the most sensitive roles in the Justice Department. That office prosecutes politicians, public officials, and high-stakes corruption cases. In those positions, trust is everything. The Constitution gives the president Article II authority to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Supreme Court precedent has consistently interpreted Article II to give the President broad removal authority.
Maurene Comey may claim she was fired because of who her father is. But the legal reality is that Article II gives the president the prerogative to decide who he wants in those roles. Prosecutors don’t serve independently of the executive — they are part of the executive. If a president lacks confidence in a prosecutor, he has every right to remove them. That isn’t corruption or a “purge,” it is constitutional authority.
Maddow then tied that claim to a broader narrative:
“They’re saying now they will use the horrific murder of pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk last week as a justification for some undefined whole-of-government attack on what they always describe very vaguely as the left in this country. Whatever else you think about what Trump is trying to do in office, there is no drama, there’s no uncertainty, there’s no ambiguity about the agenda, right? It is the textbook agenda of every right-wing strongman everywhere. They all do the same thing. You tell people there is an enemy within that demands emergency measures … and therefore we must have emergency powers and toughness, and we must take off the gloves and break the rules.”
But in the United States, “right-wing” is not synonymous with authoritarianism. American conservatism is rooted in limited government, individual liberty, and constitutional checks and balances. In other countries, however, the term “right wing” often means something very different. That’s why Maddow’s sweeping phrase is misleading. History shows strongmen have come from every direction: Stalin, Mao, and Castro were left-wing dictators; Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party was secular Arab nationalism; Mussolini and Hitler represented fascism, which doesn’t map neatly onto the American left-right divide. Labeling every “strongman” as right-wing ignores reality and distorts the meaning of the term.
Maddow insists that Trump pointing out real threats amounts to some “textbook strongman agenda.” But what’s actually happening? A pro-Trump activist was murdered in cold blood. That isn’t propaganda, it’s reality. Calling attention to political violence is not inventing an “enemy within” — it’s acknowledging facts on the ground. If the political leanings had been reversed, Democrats would demand investigations, hearings, and sweeping reforms. Yet when Trump raises the issue, Maddow dismisses it as authoritarian.
If Maddow really wants to talk about strongmen, she should look to history. Stalin, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein — these men crushed opposition, silenced media, and clung to power indefinitely. Trump did none of that. He left office when his term ended, he was attacked daily by a hostile press, and he is back in the White House through open elections. That isn’t authoritarianism. That’s democracy.
What Maddow and Democrats often do is slap the label “authoritarian” on anything they dislike Trump doing — even when it is squarely within constitutional authority. That may be effective as fear-driven rhetoric on the fake news, but it doesn’t make it true.