After starting his State of the Union speech approximately 20 minutes late on Thursday night, President Joe Biden quickly went for a divisive tone. He took shots at his almost certain opponent come November, Donald Trump, with regards to Ukraine and Putin. Not long after came his comments about January 6, 2021.
"History is watching," Biden screamed, "just like history watched three years ago on January 6," as members could be heard yelling in agreement, "when insurrections stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger to the throat of American democracy," which members also reacted to. "Many of you were here on that darkest of days! We all saw with our own eyes, the insurrections were not patriots! They'd come to stop the peaceful transfer of power, to overturn the will of the people," Biden continued, though he stumbled slightly when saying "overturn."
Just as he has done before, Biden equated January 6 with the Civil War. "January 6 lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election posed a great gravest democracy since the Civil War. But they failed! America stood strong and democracy prevaile," he said to wild applause from Democrats
Didn't take Biden very long to bring up January 6th.#SOTU pic.twitter.com/dT2DWGYlpc
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Reaction has been strong so far during the speech, not only when it comes to multiple applause lines and cheers from Biden's fellow Democrats, but also grumblings from Republican members. "Dark Brandon" has been one of the trends over X on Thursday night in response to Biden's angry tone.
While Biden has made it a key point to bring up these supposed threats to democracy throughout his campaign, it's quite ironic that Biden would be so determined to bring it up. After all, it's Democrats who are hellbent on getting Trump kicked off the ballot rather than let the voters decide. Earlier this week, though, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 9-0 decision in Trump v. Anderson, making clear that the "responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States."
Trump handily won Colorado and Maine on Super Tuesday, two states that had kicked him off the ballot, just as he won almost all of the other states that night.
The Make America Great Again Inc. PAC sent out a press release highlighting such points as well when it comes to how "Joe Biden Threatens Democracy." This applies to how not only Trump has been targeted, but peaceful conservative Americans as well.
Biden then segued to another unrelated but nevertheless key Democratic issue of abortion and protecting access to IVF.