President Joe Biden called on voters to unite against “Make America Great Again” Republicans regardless of their own ideology during a prime-time address in which he urged the public to protect democracy by casting their ballots for Democrats in the November midterm elections.
Biden’s speech came as critics accused him of hypocrisy by claiming he aspired for unity while at the same time caricaturing Republicans as “extreme.”
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“I will not stand by and watch elections in this country be stolen by people who simply refuse to accept that they lost,” Biden said Thursday on the steps of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. “As your president, I will defend your democracy with every fiber of my being, and I’m asking every American to join me.”
Biden started his 25-minute remarks, his third in the battleground state of Pennsylvania this week, with a hoarse voice before clearing his throat and finding his momentum. He reiterated to those gathered around him, including protesters who were within earshot, that “too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal.”
“Not every Republican embraces extreme ideology,” he said, condemning violence. “But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.”
“MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution,” he added. “They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election.”
The White House was adamant Biden’s address Thursday would be optimistic and not political, but it was staged two months before November’s midterm elections and constituted a continuation of the president’s 2020 “battle for the soul” of the country campaign. That slogan emerged after the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Biden’s conflation of MAGA and traditional Republicans coincides with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Thursday becoming the 10th GOP co-sponsor of the Senate’s bipartisan Electoral Count Act reform bill. It also comes as Trump Secretary of Defense Mark Esper described “extreme partisanship” as the No. 1 threat to the homeland and a NBC poll found that 21% of respondents consider democracy their most pressing issue.
Democrats hope Biden underscoring the importance of safeguarding democracy will rattle Republican-leaning and independent voters after Trump’s 2020 challenges, the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, and now his alleged mishandling of classified materials amid concerns the former president will scramble 2022 by announcing a 2024 White House bid. But GOP members, such as Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, have criticized “divider in chief” Biden for not understanding the “soul” of the country, let alone their rank and file.
“Entering office, Biden promised a presidency of ‘unity,'” McDaniel said. “Since then, Biden has used the office to label those who didn’t go along with his agenda as dangerous, semifascist, and reinstating a ‘Jim Crow era.’”
Biden needs “gimmicks” because Democrats “do not own a single winnable issue,” “from border security to parental rights,” according to Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson. Consumer price increases plateaued in July, but the year-on-year inflation rate was 8.5%. The national average cost of gas is $3.83 per gallon, a decrease from $5 in June but still higher than it was shortly after Biden’s inauguration.
“The American people who are struggling to put food on the table, fill up their gas tanks, and provide for their families,” Anderson said. “American voters are tired of the Biden administration gaslighting people on the negative impacts of their economic policies and have had enough of the empty promises for unity.”
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Democrats have an average 0.1-percentage-point advantage on generic congressional ballot polling, according to RealClearPolitics. Democrats have a 68% chance of holding on to the evenly divided Senate, odds that have improved since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But Republicans have a 76% chance of recapturing the House, requiring only four seats to flip the chamber.
