It was only a matter of time before some unhinged Democrat went on record saying this, despite the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week. With Donald Trump back in the White House, some lunatic was bound to utter this, and what better hearing than one about DC oversight. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) decided to drop a fascist lecture, which Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) could not abide. It led to a heated exchange. It was Thunderdome (via The Hill):
It's been 8 days since a leftist assassin shot my friend @charliekirk11.
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) September 18, 2025
Just now, Rashida Tlaib just called us "FASCIST" again.
This rhetoric is WRONG.
This rhetoric is UNHINGED.
This rhetoric is OUT-OF-LINE.
This rhetoric has INSPIRED MURDER.
WE WILL NOT STAND TO BE DEFAMED. pic.twitter.com/FDEJmSpoxe
Rashida Tlaib had no point to make, so she called Republicans “FASCIST” again.
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) September 18, 2025
She used the exact same irresponsible rhetoric that inspired Tyler Robinson and was completely out-of-line.
Enough is enough.
We must set the record straight.
We must call them out EVERY SINGLE TIME. pic.twitter.com/d03yNaq9rW
Tlaib attacked her GOP colleagues for depicting Washington as a crime-ridden and dilapidated city, saying that’s not the reality she sees on the ground. She also accused Republicans of merely parroting talking points they read about the city elsewhere.
“It’s really important we need to stand up against this fascist takeover — that’s not a bad word. It’s a fact,” Tlaib said, during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing about crime and the federal crackdown in the nation’s capital.
“And here in D.C. and across the country, it is so incredibly important, Mr. Chair, that this committee does not allow rhetoric that … paints Washington, D.C., in a way that you all haven’t really truly seen,” she continued. “You’re just reading it. No, you’re just reading it or something off of some —.”
The exchange escalated after Donalds, a Trump ally running to be Florida’s governor, objected to Tlaib’s use of the phrase “fascist takeover” to characterize Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and federal law enforcement agents in the nation’s capital.
[…]
“Do I look like a member of the Third Reich to you, Ms. Tlaib? Is that what I look like to you?” Donalds, who is Black, asked Tlaib.
This is just an unserious party.