Joe Biden will continue his attacks on ‘extreme MAGA Republicans’ on Thursday night in a primetime speech focusing on threats to democracy – the issue that he says prompted to him to run for president.
The White House argues the speech is not political but about defending democracy at a time it is in peril.
‘It’s not a political speech,’ said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday. ‘This is an opportunity again, for the President to directly have a conversation with the with the the American people.’
The president will use his remarks to take direct aim at the Republican Party and, specifically, the supporters of former President Donald Trump, who Biden paints as extremists who want to take away American rights.
And, in his speech, Biden will frame November’s congressional election, in which Democrats are seeking to maintain control of Congress, as part of an ongoing battle for the ‘soul of the nation.’
With the election 10 weeks away, Jean-Pierre indicated voting is on the president’s mind.
He’ll ‘talk about the importance of engagement. He’ll talk about voter participation,’ she said.
But the speech is not specificially aimed at Trump but toward his supporters who have embraced his lie that the won the 2020 election.
‘This is so much broader, so much bigger than any one party. than any one person and it’s an optimistic speech again about where we are as a nation where we can go,’ Jean-Pierre said.
Biden will use a historic backdrop to make his point: he will speak outside of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, the site where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted by America’s founding fathers.
Jean-Pierre said ‘the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party.’
‘They just don’t respect the rule of law,’ she said of ‘MAGA Republicans’ at her Wednesday press briefing. ‘And they are pursuing an agenda that takes away people’s rights.’
Democrats are using the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade to rally their supporters to vote this November.
It is unclear Biden will mention Trump by name when he speaks but Jean-Pierre said ‘the president is not going to shy away to call out what he clearly sees is happening in this country.’
President Joe Biden will continue his attacks on ‘extreme MAGA Republicans’ on Thursday night in a primetime speech focusing on threats to democracy
Donald Trump remains a force to be reckoned with in the Republican Party, the former president will hold a campaign rally for GOP candidates in Pennsylvania on Saturday night
The former president remains a force to be reckoned with in the Republican Party, pushing his influence in primaries across the country, where his MAGA supporters can make or break a candidate.
Trump’s record in those races is mixed – he took down his top target, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in her August primary, but other Republicans who voted for his impeachment have gone on to primary victories.
And now there are rumblings of worry from some in GOP leadership, who fear the federal investigation into whether Trump took classified documents from the White House will affect them at the ballot box in November.
But Trump still has his defenders.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a close Trump ally, announced he would speak in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Thursday afternoon to pre-empt Biden’s remarks.
And Republican National Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Biden’s ‘agenda has pitted neighbors against each other, rewarded the wealthy while punishing working families, and trampled on the rights and freedoms of Americans. Joe Biden is the divider-in-chief and epitomizes the current state of the Democrat Party: one of divisiveness, disgust, and hostility towards half the country.’
Trump will be in Pennsylvania on Saturday, when he holds a campaign rally for the state’s Senate and gubernatorial candidates in Wilkes-Barre.
Meanwhile, Democratic hopes for the midterms are rising. A new Wall Street Journal poll on Thursday showed the party has made gains among independent voters and Americans have an improved view of President Biden, who has seen his approval rating notch upwards in the last few weeks.
Biden has been targeting Trump supporters as he campaigns for Democrats.
The president, in August, accused Trump and ‘extreme’ Republicans of ‘semi-fascism’ at a fundraiser for Democrats.
‘What we’re seeing now, is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy,’ Biden told about 100 wealthy donors. ‘It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the – I’m going to say something – it’s like semi-fascism.’
Biden said Trump and MAGA Republicans were ‘destroying America.’
Biden began his 2020 presidential campaign in Philadelphia in a May 2019 speech.
And he has said he was inspired to run for president after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a clash between white supremacists and counter-protesters left three dead and dozens injured.
He’s kept up his ‘soul of democracy’ argument throughout the last campaign and into his first years in the presidency.
On the first anniversary of the January 6th insurrection on the Capitol, Biden said the country is in a battle for its soul.
‘I said it many times and it’s no more true or real than when we think about the events of January 6th: We are in a battle for the soul of America. A battle that, by the grace of God and the goodness and gracious — and greatness of this nation, we will win,’ Biden said in remarks in the Capitol building.
President Biden will speak outside of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, the site where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted by America’s founding fathers
Joe Biden, with Jill Biden, kicked off his 2020 presidential campaign at a May 2019 rally in Philadelphia
Thursday night’s speech in Philadelphia will be Biden’s third in the battleground state of Pennsylvania in the span of one week.
Biden was in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., on Tuesday to talk about supporting law enforcement.
And, on Monday, the president will campaign with Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman at the Pittsburgh Labor Day parade.
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