President Joe Biden delivered a forceful message at a Democratic National Committee reception in suburban Maryland this week, outlining his administration’s accomplishments and launching verbal attacks on loyalists of former President Donald Trump, a strategy his aides believe is the winning formula to maintain the narrow Democratic advantage in Congress in the November legislative elections.
“Not all Republicans are MAGA Republicans. Not all Republicans embrace extreme ideology,” Biden said Thursday, referring to Trump’s campaign slogan: “Make America Great Again.” [Hagamos a EEUU grande otra vez]. “I know because I have worked with them, the traditional Republicans, and there are still some of them. But the extreme set of MAGA Republicans have chosen to back down, full of anger, violence, hatred and division. And that’s his game.”
Democrats, independents and traditional Republicans, Biden said, can “choose a different path” toward a future of “unity, hope and some optimism.”
The speech was further proof that the message of unity that the candidate Biden offered to the United States when he launched his campaign in April 2019 -and on which he insisted in his inaugural speechin January 2021 – has evolved to exclude “MAGA Republicans”.
With nearly months to go before the midterm congressional elections, the speech was clear evidence that Biden is walking away from that commitment by branding MAGA Republicans a threat to democracy, invoking harsh political rhetoric that includes accusations that Trump loyalists embrace “semi-fascism.”
It is this message that Biden will deliver as he travels across the country rallying support for Democratic candidates, while touting legislative victories on climate change, gun control, drug prices and infrastructure, as well as falling gasoline prices and strong job creation numbers, White House officials said.
Democrats have a slim majority in Congress; the Senate is split 50-50 and the House of Representatives has 219 Democrats and 211 Republicans with five vacant seats.
Primary races in several states began in March. In November, all 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats will be on the ballot. Additionally, 36 of the 50 states will elect governors.
Evolution of Biden’s message of unity
Taking the oath of office on January 20, 2021, Biden urged the nation to unite and overcome its “uncivil war.” He did not mention his predecessor by name, despite being on the same grounds as the US Capitol. who were robbed two weeks earlier by a pro-Trump mob, encouraged by the president’s unsubstantiated claims number 45 that Biden had stolen the election.
Twenty months later, as Trump loyalists continue to reject the 2020 election results and attempt to change electoral systems in states where they hold legislative majorities, all bets are off.
In a prime-time speech in early September in Philadelphia, in the swing state of Pennsylvania, Biden warned that “extreme ideology” of Trump threatens the “very foundation of our republic.”
“There is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans,” Biden said.
Republicans responded, with one of the former president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr, calling the speech “the most divisive” in US history.
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