Biden's prime-time speech: Trumpism threatens democracy
“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards,” Biden is saying, according to prepared remarks released by the White House. “Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.”
“The president thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. “It’s not stopping. It’s continuing.”
Biden allies stress that he is not rejecting the entirety of the GOP and is calling on traditional Republicans to join him in condemning Trump and his followers. It’s a balancing act, given that more than 74 million people voted for Trump in 2020.
“I respect conservative Republicans,” Biden said last week. “I don’t respect these MAGA Republicans.”
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy dismissed any such distinction, accusing the president of trying to “disparage hard-working Americans.” He was delivering a preemptive rebuttal to Biden from Scranton Thursday evening.
The teleprompter is getting pretty bold. The dementia/divider in chief .