A CNN commentator who worked on President Joe Biden's campaign compared people attending Saturday's "Justice for J6" rally to the Taliban.
The event to be held in Washington, D.C., was organized to show support for people arrested following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Ashley Allison, associate director in the Office of Public Engagement under then-President Barack Obama, appeared on CNN on Thursday and was asked if "an overthrow of the government fetish" existed — a notion anti-Trump Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., has promoted.
"Absolutely," the progressive Allison said on CNN. "There's a delusional fetish. There is just a disconnect with reality.
"We know Joe Biden won the election, and these folks are showing up because on Jan. 6, there was a group of people wanting to overthrow our government and did not believe what actually voters decided to do, and they're coming back Saturday to make the point a second time."
Calling the rally a "reunion," Allison compared the gathering to "Nazis marching in the streets and they came back to 'Unite the Right'" in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"When I look at the people who come on Saturday, I draw very close parallels to the Taliban," Allison said of the "Justice for J6" attendees. "They are people who don't want respect for democracy, who don't have respect to diverging ideas."
Such rhetoric by progressives and Democrats likely helped motivate former President Donald Trump to say Saturday's rally was a no-win situation for Republicans.
"That's a setup," Trump said of the event in an interview with The Federalist. "If people don't show up they'll say, 'Oh, it's a lack of spirit.' And if people do show up, they'll be harassed."
The former president also cited a double standard when it comes to demonstrators.
"People are so disgusted with the way people are being treated from the Jan. 6 situation," Trump told The Federalist. "It's a combination of that compared to how antifa and [Black Lives Matter] were treated. When you compare the treatment, it is so unjust, it is so unfair. It's disgraceful."
Capitol Police have asked the Department of Defense to provide National Guard support upon request, Axios reported Wednesday.
A large force has not been requested, though, because estimates of rally attendance are in the hundreds and not the thousands, according Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.
Temporary fencing around the Capitol will return for the rally, which is being hosted by the nonprofit group Look Ahead America.
The group's founder, Matt Braynard, tweeted a plea to rally attendees not to wear MAGA or political gear.
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