Tipsheet

White House Doubles Down on Attacking Political Opponents

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  September 01, 2022 11:00 AM

A week after President Joe Biden called out his political opponents and Republican philosophy as "semi-fascism," it doesn't look like he or his administration are slowing down. During Wednesday's press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre continued to double down on the inflammatory rhetoric against Republicans.  

The press, to their credit, kept pushing Jean-Pierre, so we at least have transparency and a record of what Biden and this administration thinks of his political opponents.

In one question, Jean-Pierre emphasized multiple times about how "MAGA Republicans" are the "extreme" ones. "The President thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy.  The President has been clear as he can be on that particular piece.  When we talk about our democracy, when we talk about our freedoms, the way that he sees it is the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party.  That extreme — this is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights." A moment later in her response she claimed "MAGA Republicans are this extreme part of their party, and that is just facts.  And that’s what he’s going to continue to lay out."

Such a subjective statement is "just facts," and not a matter of this administration's opinion. 

A moment later, a reporter aptly pointed to the criticisms that Biden "ran as a uniter and now he’s calling MAGA Republicans, which is a very large swath of the American populace, semi-fascists" and "arguing that they’re a threat to democracy." When the reporter asked "does the White House believe that this is a fair criticism by Republicans that this is not unifying language," Jean-Pierre engaged in whataboutism, without giving a sufficient answer.

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Throughout the press briefing, Jean-Pierre also equated "inciting violence" with pro-life Americans who, as this administration sees it, are "trying to take away our rights, trying to take away our freedoms."

Despite lumping in so many Americans together, Jean-Pierre claimed Biden is "being very targeted."

As we're now just a little over two months away from the November midterm elections, this seems to be the messaging strategy for the president in hopes it will somehow help Democrats hold onto one or both chambers of Congress where they have narrow majorities as it is. 

Later today, Biden will speak outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia for a "primetime address." It's been billed as being about a speech for the "continued battle for the soul of the nation." 

ABC News highlighted on Thursday morning that the president will address the "extremist threat to democracy," and the Financial Times noted ahead of time about the speech he's going to "sharpen" his attacks against his political opponents.

As The Hill framed it about Biden's rhetoric, "Biden’s anti-MAGA midterm message takes shape." Ja'han Jones, writing for the ReidOut blog, referred to Biden's attacks as "funny," with a newer headline claiming "Biden's brutal honesty is a boon for his administration."

One thing is for sure, after then candidate Biden campaign on supposedly being different from former President Donald Trump on his rhetoric, and newly inaugurated Biden spoke multiple times about "unity," it's all seems to have just been a ruse.