President Joe Biden gave an alarming and dire address to the nation on what he views as extremist threats to U.S. democracy from Trump supporters. In a Thursday night speech, Biden framed the November elections as crucial to the continued battle for the “soul of the nation.”
In the remarks from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Biden declared that MAGA Republicans "fan the flames of political violence.” The president pointed to the many Trump supporters who have denied the 2020 election results and raised doubt about future elections.
In a pre-speech rebuttal in Scranton, Pennsylvania, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy accused the president of trying to “disparage hard-working Americans,” the Associated Press reported.
“He won’t stop,” Biden said in 2017 about Trump. "His contempt for the U.S. Constitution and willingness to divide this nation knows no bounds,” he said.
Biden has been more vocal in recent weeks on Republican criticism of the Department of Justice. Many top Republicans have criticized the FBI for searching Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.
The search, the DOJ said, turned up boxes of classified materials, some of which were top secret.
“Let me say this to my Republican MAGA friends in Congress, don't tell me you support law enforcement if you won't condemn what happened on the 6th,” Biden said, referencing the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “Don't tell me.”
McCarthy discussed in his speech "what he has heard from the American people this summer regarding rising crime, record-high inflation and other hardships brought on by the Democrats' harmful policies."
After the speech, Biden tweeted one word: "democracy."
democracy
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 2, 2022
Watch the full speech here: