Esteemed Harvard Law professor and self-described liberal Alan Dershowitz told Tucker Carlson Thursday that the Democratic Party and the Left have been taken over by “hard left radicals” — like the woman from Martha’s Vineyard who recently said she wanted to stab him through the heart.
On “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Thursday, Dershowitz described just how extreme people whom he would have once thought were ideologically aligned with him have gotten in response to Trump. Though he has repeatedly criticized Trump for various mistakes and policy positions, by simply defending the president’s right to due process when it comes to impeachment, said Dershowitz, he’s been “shunned” by many of his peers on the Left.
“I hate Vladimir Putin. I hate what he stands for. I hate tyranny in the world,” said Dershowitz (transcript via RCP). “I’m not doing the bidding of Donald Trump. I opposed Donald Trump’s immigration policies, his approach to Charlottesville and when I have an opportunity, I tell him that. I am making the same arguments about civil liberties that I’ve made for 50 years and that I would be making if Hillary Clinton had been elected president and people were trying to impeach her.”
The legal expert then gave Carlson an example of just how over-the-top many of his fellow liberals have become.
“[A]t a party this week on Martha’s Vineyard a woman said, ‘If Dershowitz were here tonight I’d stab him through the heart,'” said Dershowitz. “This is a Martha’s Vineyard woman saying she would stab me through the heart.”
This sort of vitriol is not the only problem among those on the Left, he suggested. Citing an MIT professor who is trying to get people to “shun” him, Dershowitz said there’s an increasing trend to shut down debate and insulate oneself in the left-wing bubble — but the shift to the “hard left” is “backfiring.”
“Now they are losing because the vast majority of people, even in Martha’s Vineyard and in Chilmark can’t stand people who try to stop speech and try to stop debate, so it’s backfiring,” he said. “But the other point that’s very important is they did this to try to hurt me, but the end result is they are helping Donald Trump. They are strengthening Donald Trump’s hands. The people who tried to shun me are giving Donald Trump and his base an argument about what the radicals are doing.”
Dershowitz also made a point of defending the term “liberal” and differentiating it from the radical Left.
“I don’t think what you are describing is a liberal phenomenon. I’m a liberal,” he told Carlson. “I think it’s a hard left radical phenomenon. I think liberals still support free speech. Liberals support due process but the Democratic party and the Left has been taken over by radicals who have no interest in due process. They are like [MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte]. They only want their truth to prevail. They don’t want any dissent. They don’t want any argument.”
He continued: “It’s happening on university campuses. And when you have professors like Negroponte giving the students the lesson it’s okay not to engage, not to talk to people that you disagree with, it’s a terrible reflection of what is going on in the United States of America.”
Dershowitz also took a moment to challenge Joe Scarborough to invite him on his show so he can respond to his criticism of him.
Partial transcript via Real Clear Politics. Video below via Fox News: