Mehdi Hasan Hits Out At ‘Cult-like Blue MAGA’ Democrats Quashing Biden Criticism
Zeteo founder and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan hit out at “cult-like” Democrats for abandoning their “liberal values” by meeting calls within the party for President Joe Biden to step aside “with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal” rather than reasoned debate, a move he said was reminiscent of the MAGA movement they’ve spent years condemning.
Biden is facing mounting calls to resign after a disastrous performance in the CNN debate, where he struggled to answer questions without stumbling and spoke with a raspy voice.
Media pundits, donors, and several Democratic lawmakers are urging him to step aside before the convention, advocating for another Democrat to challenge former President Donald Trump in November.
In an editorial for the UK newspaper The Guardian, Hasan condemned what he sees as groupthink in the Democrat ranks and supporters: “Over the past few weeks, the calls for Joe Biden to step aside have been met not with thoughtful critiques or reasoned counter-arguments but with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal.”
He continued: “I have spent the past few weeks watching the Very Online members of the base embracing an endless stream of “Blue Anon” conspiracy theories, pushed on behalf of the Dear Leader… Is the Democratic party morphing into a MAGA-like cult?”
Hasan went on to accuse the Democratic base of embracing “Blue Anon” conspiracy theories, targeting journalists and public figures who question Biden’s capability to lead. Hasan notes, “Op-ed writers who question Biden [are] dubbed ‘seditionists’; with demands to keep journalists who are deemed to be even vaguely anti-Biden ‘off air’.”
He wrote: “The party that mocked Republicans for slamming Trump in private while backing him in public is now doing the same with its own leader. At the time of writing, only about 20 congressional Democrats have called for Biden to step aside and yet reporting from the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and more, suggest dozens more are saying the same behind closed doors. Most elected Democrats believe Biden will struggle to win against Trump in November, noted Politico’s Rachael Bade last week, ‘even if they don’t say it on record.’”
Adding: “And what’s one of the main reasons why they won’t say it on the record? Because they’re afraid.”
The criticism extends to Biden himself, who Hasan argued has adopted rhetoric strikingly similar to Trump’s. In a recent interview, Biden claimed, “Who’s gonna be able to hold Nato together like me? Who’s gonna do that?” The Zeteo founder draws comparison between Biden’s obsession with crowd sizes and attacking the media also mirrors Trump’s behavior.
In conclusion, Hasan wrote: “Blue MAGA may not be violent or authoritarian like Red MAGA, but the consequences of a second major political party in the United States succumbing to a weird online cult of personality could be disastrous for our democracy.
He finished by quoting a warning from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche: “‘He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.’”
