In a rare prime-time speech on Thursday, American President Joe Biden increased his criticism of conservatives ahead of the midterm elections and accused former President Donald Trump and his supporters of advancing an extremist ideology that undermines democracy.
“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic”, Biden said in a speech from Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park.
Context of Joe Biden’s remarks
In his address on Thursday at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Biden unleashed the presidential trappings in an atypically harsh and comprehensive denunciation of Trump and what he claimed has become the leading faction of the opposition party. His attack came only two months before voters go to the polls in the hotly contested midterm elections, which Vice President Joe Biden deems a turning point for the country.
Although it’s not yet obvious how extensively Biden will refer to his predecessor this week, he and his advisers have made it plain that they believe the former president’s influence over the GOP has improved the odds for Democrats to keep their congressional majorities in the next election.
President speaks about regular remarks and conflict in presidency
The president frequently discusses how the fierce 2017 rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, guided by white supremacists, an event that prompted Trump to say there were good people “on both sides” of the terrible consequence, made him feel obligated to run for the Oval Office again and revive the nation’s spirit. Additionally, he has often sought to position his presidency at the head of a conflict between autocracies and democracies over control of the world.
However, in more recent weeks, the president has grown much more partisan and acerbic in his discussions about democracy, criticising remarks made last weekend by South Carolina Republican Sen. According to Lindsey O. Graham, there would be riots in the streets if Trump is charged with mishandling secret data.
Throughout his time in office, Biden has experienced other disruptions during speeches. The father of Joaquin Oliver, a victim of a horrific shooting, stopped the president in July when he was speaking at a White House event.
When Oliver seemed to insinuate that the bipartisan gun control package did not go far enough, Biden retorted, “Let him talk, let him talk.”
Trump’s house raid
The most recent hearing over the boxes of sensitive materials discovered at Trump’s Palm Beach resort took place just hours earlier in a Florida courtroom. A federal judge said she would think about preventing the Justice Department’s investigators from looking at the seized papers for a while.
Before Biden sternly rebuked election sceptics and the rise in political violence, his predecessor was standing up for rioters on January 6. He promised that if he ran and won re-election, he would grant “full pardons” and issue a formal apology to those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in an effort to overturn the election results and are now facing charges.
Aides emphasised that the speech, which was made just a few days before the formal start of the midterm campaign season on Labor Day, would not be blatantly political. But after an FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home turned up categorized information and stoked talk of potential criminal charges for the former president, it was difficult to read it as anything other than Biden’s attempt to frame the stakes of an election in which Trump would once again be the dominant figure.
And earlier in the day, Trump brought up Jan. 6 once more when he said on a radio appearance that he would defend the very rioters from that day who are now being charged.
Earlier this week, Trump allegedly met with the defendants from the Jan. 6 case at his office and announced that he would be providing some of them with financial support.