OXON HILL, Maryland — President Joe Biden ribbed Republicans before a friendly audience, making fun of the party for taking credit for Democratic-led efforts and pretending not to remember former President Donald Trump’s name.
During an address to the Democratic National Committee before November’s midterm elections, Biden underscored his administration’s accomplishments and outlined work he and his party could still do if they hold on to their majorities on Capitol Hill, from codifying Roe v. Wade to banning so-called assault weapons and safeguarding elections.
BY BRAGGING ABOUT RECORD, BIDEN RISKS APPEARING OUT OF TOUCH, REPUBLICANS SAY
Referring to the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Biden told the sparsely crowded reception during the DNC’s summer meeting that “there are a lot more Republicans taking credit for that bill than actually voted for it.”
“I see them out there. ‘And now we’re going to build this new bridge. We’re all for it.'” Biden said, using a deeper voice. “I love them, man. They’ve got no shame. They don’t have any shame.”
“You think if they really cared about inflation, reducing it, they would have voted for the Inflation Reduction Act,” he added later to the condoned-off section of one of the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center’s halls.
Biden singled out Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) for jeopardizing social programs, including Medicare. Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has proposed reevaluating such spending every five years.
Biden went on to feign forgetting Trump’s name before bragging about polls that suggest the incumbent could beat his predecessor in a 2024 general election rematch of 2020.
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison promoted his $70 million investment in state-based organizing before the midterm cycle during his introduction. But he also embraced Biden, despite his problematic polling, encouraging Democrats sitting at round dining tables placed around the room for cocktail hour to huddle around the stage to hear the president speak.
Biden’s DNC address is his third consecutive headline political speech on a Thursday night since his first midterm rally in Maryland last month. But the White House has repeated that Biden’s remarks last Thursday in Philadelphia, where the president accused “MAGA” Republicans of threatening democracy, were not political.
“When you go back to the speech, his speech last Thursday, people have talked about if it was divisive. It wasn’t divisive,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. “The way that we saw this speech is that he was talking to the majority of the country who agree that we have to protect our democracy, who agree that we have to protect our freedoms.”
Biden’s campaign rhetoric has become increasingly partisan two months before November. The president debuted the MAGA Republican descriptor “semifascism” during a Maryland fundraiser and then told the rally he no longer respects MAGA GOP members.
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Democrats and Republicans are almost tied in generic congressional ballot polling, according to RealClearPolitics. Democrats do have a 70% chance of keeping the Senate, but Republicans have a 74% chance of flipping the House, according to FiveThirtyEight.
