Monday on MSNBC’s “Hardball” while discussing his New York Magazine article about Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump entitled “America Has Never Been So Ripe for Tyranny,” the former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan said Trump was a “reality television asshole,” to which host Chis Matthews apologized to his audience for at the end of the segment.

Partial transcript as follows:

ANDREW SULLIVAN: They don’t demonize sections of the population, and they don’t discriminate against people based on religion. They don’t claim they are going to round up and deport 11 million human beings.

MATTHEWS: That’s different —

SULLIVAN: No, he does them both like any reality television asshole, which is what he is. That is the character he plays–

MATTHEWS: Okay this is live tv. We don’t use that word here.

SULLIVAN: He has a message as well, but his style —

MATTHEWS: So what is he? A comedian, a side show, or he’s a dangerous fascist?

SULLIVAN: He is a dangerous neofascist who is using reality television and the modern media in a way that is leaving the rest of us in the dust. And it’s terrifying to watch.