I think you miss the point that the viewer is supposed to percieve. I think the host is mocking the idea of Trump being a fascist. I'll try to recreate the "logics" behind the stunt, "logics" that a prepared casual consumer of propaganda will find the most natural and obvious.

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So, if Trump, a president of "the most democratic country ever", then he's democratic himself, so obviously not a fascist, despite his behaviour fitting Snyder's descriptions of Fascism, then this behaviour is entirely normal and democratic, therefore similar tactics of Russian government are, obviously, not fascist at all, because they meet the standarts of "the most democratic country in the world". Or then US is not democratic, actually it's US that was a fascist state during Trump's rule, so then any critics from US is hypocritical or ill-intended manipulation and must be simply ignored, you don't reason with a fascist enemy – you just oppose them, that's it.

What kind of a clownish professor is this Snyder, and what kind of a clownish institution is this Yale, if they fail to detect that US is either obviously not democratic at all (and maybe even fascist itself), or fail to see how obviously wrong they are when comparing Trump, Russian government and Fascism, if US is democratic and not fascist?

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That's about it, a lame rationalization that will emerge in the mind of a TV viewer if you'll try to ask questions. It's created from pieces that they heard and deeply internalized (to the level that they see this as self-evident) from propaganda throughout years of consuming.