During a discussion about the lavish state dinner this week (where Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping), and Tom Nichols' article in The Atlantic where he criticized Trump and said he should stop hosting these summits because he's turned them into a "pointless ritual," CNN NewsNight guest Leigh McGowan took apart the hypocritical Republicans for their constant red-baiting and then cozying up to an actual communist who is helping Iran.

After right-wing radio host Jason Rantz tried a bit of whataboutism, comparing Trump's meeting to what went on during the Obama administration, McGowan let him have it:

RANTZ: You had, under the Biden administration, you had four summits with China, three of which came with literally nothing afterwards except, we're going to continue the conversations, and that's what we're talking about here.

It's not that you're saying literally doing nothing. It's about what comes in the immediate aftermath doesn't always have to literally happen the day after, that sometimes it does take a little bit of further conversations. A.I. is one of those examples I think that is reasonable.

MCGOWAN: You know what? I agree with you on that. I think that's incredibly reasonable. For me, I wasn't expecting some big deal on A.I. to come out of this meeting. What concerns me is that what I hear from the Republican Party, which is Donald Trump's party all the time, is the horrors of communism, that the Democrats are communists, and communists are ruining America, and communism is the biggest threat America has to face.

And then I watch the red carpet be rolled out for the biggest communist dictator in the world, who is currently funding the destruction of our own bases in an active war zone. And we're supposed to say, well, here's my painting, and here's my pictures, and here's my this, and isn't this hilarious from the other president? It was all buddy-buddy.

And you say, how can communism be the biggest problem we face when we had just had the biggest party for the biggest communist? I watch Fox News all day talking about communism, communism, communism. Every single one of them got dressed up to go to that dinner. I see the Republican representatives doing it. I see the Supreme Court justices at that dinner last night.

That is telling us a totally different story than they didn't make a deal on A.I. It's why are we hosting the biggest communist dictator in the world while he's actually attacking American soldiers through his own money.

RANTZ: Fair point, and I think that some people will ask that exact question.

MCGOWAN: They should.

RANTZ: And I think they should point to President Obama doing literally the exact same thing. And the reason was you want to have these conversations and relationships with folks. You do have to talk with people who are your direct enemy, especially when you've got --

MCGOWAN: Well, you would have to talk about the actual issue, though. You wouldn't show them off all your cool stuff, right?

RANTZ: They do not do that publicly, and you know that they don't do that publicly.

MCGOWAN: Yes.

RANTZ: The conversation's are private --

MCGOWAN: But what we've heard from my friend here is that we don't want Trump making those deals anyway. So, what we see publicly --

RANTZ: Well, you don't want Trump making those deals.

MCGOWAN: Neither does Pete.

(CROSSTALKS)

MCGOWAN: What matters is why did we just spend this much taxpayer dollar to hold up a communist leader when we've been told that communism is the biggest problem we have?

RANTZ: Well, it was about the relationship and what will come after that. Look, I mean, you sometimes have --

MCGOWAN: Yes, but the relationship should be pretty hostile right now considering they're funding the Iran war.

Which was followed by even more whataboutism about Obama. It's too bad McGowan didn't get a chance to respond with how the right treated Obama when he had those meetings. Most of us still remember the nonstop howling during the Obama administration about him supposedly "bowing down to dictators."

So we all know exactly how this would have been treated if a Democrat had hosted something like this when so many people out there are struggling.