US President Joe Biden slams ‘threat to democracy’ from Donald Trump era
The US president’s aggressive prime-time address takes aim at ‘extreme ideology’ in a declaration of political war against Donald Trump and his supporters.
In a combative speech, Joe Biden has declared democracy and equality under assault from the “extreme ideology” of former president Donald Trump and his supporters, urging Americans to “choose a different path”.
Speaking outside Independence Hall, Philadelphia, which had been drenched in ominous red lighting for the occasion, Mr Biden blasted the embattled former president and his hardcore supporters.
“Donald Trump and MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republicans represent extremes that threaten the very foundation of our republic,” he said in the prime-time address that was in essence a declaration of political war on Mr Trump’s supporters.
“The Republican Party today is dominated and driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans and that is a threat to his country,” Mr Biden added, suggesting Mr Trump’s supporters weren’t necessarily the “majority” of Republicans.
The 24-minute address laid out Democrats’ national political strategy and made clear they would pull no punches in their bid to keep their control of Congress in elections less than 10 weeks away.
“MAGA forces are determined to take this county backward to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, contraception, or to marry who you love,” Mr Biden said.
“They have made their choice, they embrace anger, thrive on chaos, they live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies,” he added, in the most aggressive speech of his presidency so far, and one which focused solely on domestic politics.
“MAGA Republicans do not respect the constitution, do not believe in the rule of law, do not recognise the will of the people … and refuse to accept the results of a free elections”.
The President has stepped up his rhetorical attacks on Republicans in recent months, regularly deriding so-called MAGA supporters of Mr Trump, even going so far as describing them as “semi-fascist” in remarks last month in a campaign speech in Maryland.
“Blind loyalty to single leader and willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy,” Mr Biden said, referring to the mob of Mr Trump’s supporters that stormed the Capitol Building on January 6.
“Democracy cannot survive when one side believes only in two outcomes: either they win, or they were cheated,” he said, arguing Republicans were working to subvert future elections by installing cronies in positions of power in state governments.
Mr Biden’s address came after a series of stronger than expected performances by Democrat candidates in Congressional by-elections, the party’s improving standing in major opinion polls, including most recently in Alaska where Trump-endorsed Sarah Palin lost a Congressional by election to a little-known Democrat.
Mr Biden’s personal approval rating has increased from a low of 38 per cent in mid-July to 43 per cent, according to FiveThirtyEight, a polling aggregator.
According to most political betting odds, Democrats are now considered more likely than not to maintain control of the Senate in November, where the two major parties each have 50 seats, even if they lose control of the House of Representatives.
Republicans appear to have lost political momentum following the Supreme Court’s controversial June decision to overturn the national right to an abortion established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade court decision.
At the same time, the various and growing series of investigations into Mr Trump, most recently over his handling of classified documents, have drawn attention away from record high inflation, which Republicans had hoped to campaign on.
The GOP are trailing Democrats in key senate races in Arizona and Pennsylvania after Republican primaries threw up Trump-backed candidates with questionable appeal to the broader electorate.
The remaining, and smaller part, of the President’s speech extolled the spate of new legislation passed by Democrats in Congress in recent months, including gun control reform, subsidies for renewable energy, moves to lower prescription drug prices and efforts to “end cancer as we know it”.
“The cynics and critics are wrong. There is not a single thing American can’t do,” Mr Biden said.
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