Republicans attempting to define extremism in America have homed in on what their political opponents are saying about them — and have begun an aggressive campaign to get them to stop.
In the weeks since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Republicans have regularly and forcefully demanded that Democrats stop calling them “fascists,” arguing it incites violence and its usage is proof that Democrats are politically toxic. The effort has included a broad mix of GOP officials, from the president to political operatives working on the 2026 midterm elections, and has shown little evidence of slowing down anytime soon.
“The Democrat Party is exposing their liberal brain rot by smearing conservatives as ‘fascists,’ and it’s a green light for political violence,” said Mike Marinella, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “They don’t get to wash their hands of it because they have turned political violence into just another talking point.”
Calls for Democrats to tamp down their rhetoric intensified on Wednesday after a shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas left one detainee dead and two more injured.
“If you want to stop political violence, stop telling your supporters that everybody who disagrees with you politically is a Nazi,” Vice President JD Vance said during a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday.
The Republican effort is another marker in an ongoing debate over free speech and the link between political rhetoric and violence, which has grown in recent years alongside an increase in attacks on politicians from both parties. And it’s an apparent attempt to turn the subject into an issue on the campaign trail, where Republicans hope to convince moderate voters that Democrats are extremists.
It also looks likely to be met with stony resistance from Democrats. They say any effort to tone down political rhetoric needs to start with President Donald Trump, who regularly castigates his opponents, including calling former Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris a fascist.
“I’ve used the word before, and I’ll use it again if I think it is applicable to where we are,” said Jaime Harrison, who was chair of the Democratic National Committee during last year’s presidential campaign.
“You gotta call it what it is,” he continued. “I think one of the dangers is if we see it and we try to ignore it or sugarcoat it, without telling the American people what it is.”
“Fascism,” which refers to a far-right system of government led by a dictator, is directly associated with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
Trump’s rhetoric about his political opponents holds a singular place in recent American history, including his stated belief that former President Barack Obama might not have been born in the United States, his call to jail then-opponent Hillary Clinton, and most recently, his vow to target the “radical left” after Kirk’s assassination.
Democrats and some critics say the president’s actions necessitate the kind of language that they use, including use of the word “fascist.” They point to actions like pardoning everyone convicted as part of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, deploying the military to U.S. cities, and subverting Congress’ role in lawmaking and spending.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors convinced a grand jury to indict former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump had threatened for years to prosecute. The investigation into Comey has been denounced by critics, including former Department of Justice officials, as politicized and without merit.
“If we don’t call it what it is, we’ll be overrun by it,” said Joe Walsh, a former Tea Party congressman turned Trump critic. “We have an obligation to call it out.”
Democrats weren’t reluctant to criticize Trump during his first term. But the party’s leaders have spoken of him in increasingly harsh terms in the years since.
In 2022, former President Joe Biden said Trump’s philosophy was “semi-fascist.” Last year, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, both called Trump a fascist.
And more recently, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin delivered an impassioned speech calling Trump a fascist to a room full of DNC members.
“This is not politics as usual, my friends,” Martin said. “This is authoritarianism. It’s fascism dressed in a red tie. And we, each of you in this room, and all of the Democrats throughout this country, we are the only thing standing in his way.”
A spokesperson for the DNC declined to say if Martin would stop calling Trump a fascist. They pointed instead to a statement from the chair issued Wednesday after the Dallas shooting saying both parties needed to take steps to quell political violence in America.
Republicans have said that the circumstances of both shootings are proof that the rhetoric from Democratic leaders is inspiring violent action against the GOP. Law enforcement authorities say Kirk was killed by a man who inscribed anti-fascist sentiment on his bullets. Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said the suspected shooter at the Dallas ICE facility had the words “ANTI-ICE” inscribed on a shell casing.
In recent weeks, Republicans have made their argument about Democrats’ language in an explicitly political context.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, issued a statement saying Democrats had refused to back off and had “lost their sense of decency and morality.” The group has also singled out some individual lawmakers, including Democrats in competitive swing seats next year, criticizing them for calling Republicans fascist.
The calls have also come from some more moderate members of the GOP.
“I think it’s wrong for Dems to be calling GOP fascists,” said Don Bacon, a retiring congressman from Nebraska who has been critical of Trump. “My opponents in Omaha have thrown around that term for the last couple of cycles. It adds to the demonization, and it radicalizes some.”
Former Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, who lost a primary in 2022 after voting to impeach Trump following the attack on the Capitol, said he wished Democrats would show the same level of courage he did in speaking out against Trump’s actions in 2021. They aren’t, he added, because they are worried about upsetting their political base or even, in some cases, becoming a target of the violence they denounce.
Meijer said he didn’t expect Democrats to back off but hoped that they paid a political price for not doing so.
“The thing that makes me optimistic, frankly, is not expecting anything from the left, so much as an exceedingly diminished tolerance on the right for this type of bullshit,” Meijer said.
Walsh, who earlier this year registered as a Democrat, said he thought attempts to limit Democrats’ language were part of a broader effort by Republicans to shut down free speech. The link between political rhetoric and violence is fake, he said.
“I mean, just to say that an American president is a fascist, that is really fucking scary,” Walsh said. “You better believe it, but it’s even remotely true, you need to say it.”