Monday’s Amanpour & Co., which airs on PBS after showing on CNN International, hosted failed Georgia political candidate, and liberal media martyr Stacey Abrams to discuss her recent Time magazine jeremiad against the allegedly autocratic Donald Trump.

The show’s introduction included a representative clip from Abrams (“We are in the midst of an authoritarian regime”) and things got no less hysterical from there, with substitute host Bianna Golodryga, who may actually lean further left than the show’s eponymous host Christiane Amanpour, laying the ground: “Democratic politician Stacey Abrams tells Michel Martin why she's sounding the alarm on what she says is the rise of autocracy in America.”

When it came to introduce the Abrams interview with Michel Martin, Golodryga claimed “autocracy is on the rise around the world, and our next guest argues it's now happening in the United States. Democratic politician Stacey Abrams speaks with Michel Martin about what she says is happening right here in America, and what can be done to stop it."

MICHEL MARTIN: So, we called you specifically for an essay, a pretty strongly worded essay, that you just published in Time. It's headlined, "We Can Stop the Rise of American Autocracy." Why now? What is it that triggered this piece now?

ABRAMS: Because we are in the midst of an authoritarian regime. We keep talking about it as though it's something that's looming, and it's critical that we understand it's already happening. But if we want to reclaim our country, we have to understand the moment we're in, and we've got to start fighting back immediately.

MARTIN: Who's the we?

ABRAMS: The we is the American people. Anyone who actually believes that democracy should be the organizing principle for how we live together in this country. Autocracy, authoritarianism is an alternative. Under the proposed regime of this current administration and its supporters in the Republican Party, we have an authoritarian regime where we've seen an expansion of executive power, a sublimation of competing powers, both Congress and the courts....

It’s enlightening and infuriating to compare Martin’s patient, respectful laying out of Abrams’ “10 steps to autocracy” with the treatment given an unfortunate guest in the preceding segment, as noted by NewsBusters writer Alex Christy: correspondent Isobel Yeung’s three-minute interview interruptus with John Woodcock, member of the U.K. House of Lords.

Woodcock is responsible for a report that resulted in the radical group Palestine Action being banned in the U.K., making him a target for the left and the journalists of Amanpour & Co.

In just three minutes, Yeung squeezed in far more hostile questions, interruptions, and challenges than Abrams would ever dream of facing in her 17-minute interview with copacetic fellow liberal Michele Martin, who issued only the most microscopic challenge to Abrams, a quibble over which steps of Trump’s grasp of autocracy would come first. Abrams bizarre premise itself went unchallenged.

MARTIN: Step 10 is you make sure no one ever votes again. Now, you have them captive. Now, you've got them scared. Now, you've got them poor. And now, you have the power. This is a violent country. And there are a lot of guns. A lot of people have access to weapons. And I'm just sort of wondering if not to quibble with your kind of steps here, but how do you identify that particular facet of American life with what you call this authoritarian takeover, this authoritarian push?

After an embarrassing defense of the D.C. sandwich thrower (“the federal government came after a man who in a moment of panic and anger, threw a sandwich”) Abrams’ rant continued with a nod toward the recent defunding of public television as an example of crushing public dissent.

ABRAMS: ….It's why they defunded public television. You defund public broadcasting because public broadcasting dared to tell the truth…

It says a lot that PBS has the seal of approval of a radical like Abrams.

Martin’s last question to Abrams was hardly that of a journalistic bulldog: “And how come you aren't discouraged? What keeps you going?”