Democrats who wanted the president to crack down on conservatives ahead of the midterms praised his speech Thursday, in which he blasted “MAGA Republicans” and suggested former President Trump and those aligned with him are “a threat to this the country”. While Biden has signaled over the past week or so that he intends to escalate his anti-GOP rhetoric heading into Labor Day and the post-holiday sprint into November, liberals are cheering the delayed tactic — even if its impact is uncertain. “He was just speaking the truth,” said Vicki Miller, who leads the Philadelphia chapter of the grassroots group Indivisible. “The voters I’m talking to at the doors here in Pennsylvania, they all see what’s going on.”
“If the president had sugarcoated what he had said, they would have seen it as political words,” he said. “President Biden is simply saying what many of these voters already know: that everything is on the line.” Biden’s speech from Independence Hall set into rapid motion the countdown to the fall, when Democrats say democracy itself will be fought in crucial contests, with several Republican candidates running explicitly on messages that deny the results of the last presidential election. elections. “MAGA Republicans don’t respect the Constitution,” Biden said during his first-hour speech, one of the few he has delivered in his first term. “They don’t believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of free elections.” Before the event, administration officials said the speech was intended to send a message to all Americans, not just their own side. The White House released quotes in advance that used language emphasizing personal responsibility for helping protect the country’s existing government rules and argued that there are forces working in the other direction.
After he spoke, many Democrats were relieved that Biden used the bully pulpit to address their primary concern and argued that he might also have provided a useful boost to the base. “He set the table for the midterms in a way that frames it perfectly for the Democrats,” said Michael Starr Hopkins, a veteran Democratic campaign strategist. “Either we defeat Trump and his associates or democracy as we know it is over.” Biden has been in a slump for much of the spring and summer, with a series of problems casting a dark cloud over his presidency. But after a string of recent legislative and executive successes, things have started to turn around for the incumbent, giving what Democrats hope will be incentives to get out and vote for his party in the fall. The speech, timed at the unofficial start of the general election’s final hiatus, helped crystallize Biden’s commitment to the public, the country and the office he serves, some Democrats said, rather than simply highlighting more traditional issues like the economy. “This is not a political discussion,” Starr Hopkins said. “This is a conversation about who we are as a country and where we want to go. Biden and his White House are finally getting it. You see it in his rhetoric, you see it on the White House social media account, but most importantly you feel it in his words.” Those who have argued that Biden should be tougher on the Trump wing of the opposing party, which includes both officials and lawmakers who have explicitly sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election, are counting on voters to respond to a leader who basically defends their reserved rights. The Senate’s 50-50 failure to pass voting rights legislation last year was a blow to many liberal lawmakers and activists who warned of the looming threat that could come soon after the next election. And without those legislative protections, Democrats see the president’s tougher rhetoric as at least a step in the right direction. It comes as he transitions from hashing out the finer details of his policy agenda on Capitol Hill to becoming the Democratic Party’s top surrogate on the campaign trail. “No speech is going to decide the midterms,” ​​said Eddie Vail, a Democratic operative and partner at the New Paradigm Agency. “But this speech and the question of democracy is not only about governance. We also see that there are many independents and Republicans who see this as an important issue in the election.” Biden, a lifelong moderate, has sought to differentiate the GOP’s most ardent right-wing cadre who espouse white nationalism and seek to overturn the election from Republicans he has admired and in some cases worked with across the aisle for decades. The latter camp ranges from moderate incumbents to people who might check off the “R” on their voter registration but who gave the current president a chance to beat Trump last cycle. Despite his attempt to balance toughness with unity, many Republicans interpreted the speech differently. they criticized Biden for what they saw as grandstanding and not addressing the country’s key issues, including the cost of living and crime. Some even tried to frame the dramatic backdrop that Biden’s team chose to frame the president — dark, shadowy red lights and an American flag amid uniformed marines — as reminiscent of a bleak era of world history under authoritarianism. Conservative Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, a staunch critic of Biden who regularly praises the Trump movement, went so far as to say the Democratic president was evoking Nazi imagery while trying to defend those in the MAGA movement who he said the president sees as problematic. “Yeah, it’s a threat, says the guy with the crimson Nazi background and Marines standing behind him,” Carlson said. “It’s completely unethical.” On Friday, Democrats weren’t as concerned about the Republicans’ claims. Some pointed to the escalating problems at Trump World, which came to light after the FBI entered the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida during an ongoing investigation, as more motivation for their own base. Serena Williams’ Five Biggest Cultural Impact Moments Serena loses to Tomljanovic at the US Open. it could be the last match While this is happening, Trump is also hitting the trail, campaigning and endorsing candidates who fit his own vision for the country. Over the holiday weekend, he will be in Pennsylvania, setting up perhaps the sharpest contrast yet between the two former presidential rivals in the state that Biden narrowly won. Two crucial races there are likely to serve as a temperature check on where voters stand. GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano have both embraced Trump’s ideology, while Democratic candidates lean more toward the progressive side of their party. “The midterms are Round 2 in the battle between Biden and Trump,” Starr Hopkins said. “The current president is hitting his stride, while the former president could be impeached any day now.”