President Joe Biden’s Thursday speech in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall would have been a disturbing abuse of presidential power had it not been so ineptly bungled in every phase of execution.
Paid for by taxpayers as a supposedly nonpartisan speech, Biden attacked half the country as extremists who “threaten the very foundation of our republic.” Sure, Biden tried to limit his attack to just MAGA Republicans. But this is the same Joe Biden who insisted every Republican in the Senate who voted against the Democratic Party’s anti-voter identification bill were domestic “enemies” who were trying “to suppress your vote and subvert our elections.”
Biden can’t travel down to Georgia and label the election integrity laws supported by all Republicans “Jim Crow on steroids” and then turn around and say he is only trying to demonize a small section of the party. That’s malarkey. No Republican has fought against the lawlessness of former President Donald Trump harder than Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Still, given the opportunity to praise Kemp’s integrity and honesty, Biden called him a neosegregationist instead.
Biden went on to say that MAGA Republicans want to take us “backwards to an America where there is no right to choose.” This is how Democrats describe anyone who wants to regulate abortion a single second before a mother gives birth. But again, restricting abortion is a position held by the vast majority of Republicans. Biden can’t pretend he is only attacking a small minority of the Republican Party when he labels a mainstream policy position a threat to “the very soul of this country.”
The timing of Biden’s speech was no accident. Labor Day is traditionally seen as the beginning of the fall campaign season. And Biden’s speech previewed how Democrats will run their campaigns this fall. They won’t tout all the popular policies they enacted while they controlled the House, Senate, and presidency because they have none. The average voter has no idea what is in the Inflation Reduction Act, but they do correctly know that it will do nothing to lower inflation. In fact, it will only make it worse.
Unable to campaign on substance, Biden’s Thursday speech was designed to change the subject. Biden is hoping his party can retain complete control of Washington by making the 2022 midterm elections all about one man whose name isn’t on a single ballot: Trump.
It is a deeply cynical strategy that will only further divide the nation. Out of one side of their mouths, Democrats cry about the unique threat to democracy caused by Trump and his followers, but then out of the other side of their mouths, they elevate Trump at every chance they get, even going so far as to prop his favorite candidates up with millions in campaign donations.
The only bright side of Biden’s sermon was its unintentional comedy. Instead of clearly illuminating the iconic Independence Hall behind him, the Biden White House chose dim red lighting, which turned the building into an unrecognizable but ominous mix of red and dark shadows. Add in a pair of full-dress Marines on either side of him and Biden looked like he was an ancient despot from some third-rate science fiction movie. If Biden was trying to set a somber tone while making the case that independents should fear MAGA Republicans, he bungled badly. What few voters who did watch Biden’s speech probably came away wondering why he was sharing his plans for world domination.
The president actually had a decent August. By contracting COVID-19 and staying out of sight, Biden reminded the public how fragile and mistake-prone he is. His job approval rating rose in multiple polls. But now, Biden is back making bad speeches at bad times, reminding voters just how out of depth he is. Republicans who want to win this November should hope the White House communications team is as clueless as our president and that they repeat Thursday’s performance.
