Former Bush DOJer John Yoo: Trump ‘Reminds Me A Lot Of Early Mussolini’

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Donald Trump’s “only I can fix it” rhetoric is giving off authoritarian vibes, some conservatives are admitting, including John Yoo, the George W. Bush administration lawyer who authored the so-called “torture memos.”

Yoo told the Washington Post that Trump “reminds me a lot of early Mussolini,” calling the comparison “very disturbingly similar.”

His comment comes as even Trump’s supporters have explicitly equated him to authoritarianism.

“We need a Donald Trump to show some authoritarian power in our country and bring back the rule of law,” Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) told a local radio show this week.

Yoo went on, in the Washington Post story, to criticize Trump’s vow to use a special prosecutor to re-open the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email as “a compounded stupidity.”

“If you are a Republican or a conservative, you think that special prosecutors are unconstitutional,” Yoo said, adding that the idea would have the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “rolling in his grave.”

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Investigations Desk:
Reporters:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: