After a political ceasefire amid a deadly succession of hurricanes that wreaked devastation on Florida and Puerto Rico, President Joe Biden has returned to the campaign trail.
His pointed rhetoric during fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee and Senate Democrats in New Jersey and New York comes one day after he posed for highly anticipated photos beside potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
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Biden conceded “Democrats are running uphill,” “based on statistics,” five weeks before Election Day during his DNC reception at Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D-NJ) mansion on Thursday. Although he promoted his bipartisan accomplishments, he underscored to donors and supporters that “there’s a lot going on and a lot at stake.”
“There’s an overwhelming concern about democracy,” he said of polls before criticizing so-called MAGA Republicans. “It’s a different time.”
Reagan biographer and Republican strategist Craig Shirley was adamant he could not recall another moment in politics with “such toxic levels.” Shirley blamed Biden, particularly after the president’s prime-time address about MAGA GOP members and the importance of democracy, which he delivered against a backdrop of red light in Philadelphia.
Shirley condemned Biden’s “Nuremberg speech” as the “worst” in presidential history because he denounced “half of his countrymen.”
“Conservative-liberal tensions are higher, mostly due to his cockamamie left-wing policies, such as groveling on his knees to dictators for oil but not unleashing the potential here in the U.S.,” Shirley told the Washington Examiner.
Shirley is not alone. After the FBI conducted a search and seizure over classified documents stored at former President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago home and office in Florida this summer, the use of the phrase “civil war” skyrocketed on social media. Use of the term increased by almost 3,000% on Twitter alone, with other platforms experiencing similar trends, according to the New York Times. Its use on radio programs and podcasts also almost doubled, according to media tracking firm Critical Mention.
“There is nothing manly about his demeanor. He governs like a scared little girl, hiding behind his thuggish FBI agents,” Shirley added of Biden, dismissing Republican participation in the phenomenon. “Meanwhile, his followers spew hatred for all things Republican and conservative from every corner.”
An LX News-YouGov poll published this week found 8 in 10 people believe the country is “divided,” a percentage that is slightly lower than two surveys fielded during the final November and January of the Trump administration. Simultaneously, while 19% of adults agree the country has become more united under Biden, 45% contend it has become more divided during his presidency.
One day earlier, Biden praised DeSantis for his response to Hurricane Ian, which officials confirm has killed at least 120 people in Florida and another five in North Carolina. Describing DeSantis’s recovery effort as “pretty remarkable so far,” Biden’s remarks provided his possible rival with political cover over how he prepared his state for the natural disaster and as rescue missions continue. He, too, presented DeSantis with the opportunity to speak to a national audience from behind a presidential seal after receiving a briefing on the situation.
DeSantis was not entirely complimentary before hosting Biden, undercutting the president for looking around Fort Myers in a helicopter.
“You can go over it in a helicopter and you can see damage, but it does not do it justice until you are actually on the ground,” he told reporters during a separate press conference.
“I’m sure it’s much worse on the ground,” Biden said later during their joint event. “But you can see a whole hell of a lot of the damage from the air.”
Biden was in Puerto Rico earlier in the week as the U.S. territory rebuilds after Hurricane Fiona. That storm, which killed at least 21 people, made landfall on the island five years after Hurricane Maria killed 2,975 and two years after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake killed a man in Ponce. Biden’s trip coincided with the release of a report into how Trump’s Federal Emergency Management Agency mismanaged $65 million in aid.
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“I’m heading to Puerto Rico because they haven’t been taken very good care of,” he told reporters that morning, alluding to Trump. “They’ve been trying like hell to catch up from the last hurricane. I want to see the state of affairs today and make sure we push everything we can.”
