Tipsheet

White House Admits Biden 'Hit a Nerve' With 'Semi-Fascist' Smears

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  September 01, 2022 4:30 PM

In Thursday's White House press briefing just hours before President Joe Biden's primetime speech about the "ongoing battle for the soul of our nation," Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to explain how the tone and content of the president's message to Americans would be "optimistic" amid Biden's divisive rhetoric against Republicans.

Jean-Pierre was asked several questions on the topic, both about the goal of Thursday night's speech and President Biden's polarizing statements smearing MAGA-Republicans as "radicals" and "semi-fascists."

"I understand we hit a nerve," Biden's press secretary said of Biden's statements while playing naive about who pointed out the "divisive tone" Biden has employed in contrast to his campaign promises about unifying the country. 

"We understand that they're trying to hide, and we understand that ultra-MAGA office holders want to play games here and dodge accountability for their extreme proposals and actions, but they're just telling on themselves," Jean-Pierre alleged — ignoring Biden's refusal to accept responsibility for literally anything that's gone wrong on his watch. 

Despite Biden's recent rhetoric, Jean-Pierre denied that Biden's address would be a political speech. Instead, she said the primetime remarks from Philadelphia would be "optimistic" and "an opportunity, again, for the president to directly have a conversation with the American people."

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Despite defending President Biden's smears of his political opponents as semi-fascist radicals, Jean-Pierre doubled down on the claim that the president's primetime address wouldn't target one political party.

"You'll hear from him directly," she said, "this is not about one political party, it is not about one person in politics, this is about what we are going to do as a country to continue to fight for our democracy."

Right. So the White House's message is: Biden's attacks on Republicans that "hit a nerve" are justified, the entirely reasonable GOP reaction to being labeled extremist fascists by the White House is just "games" to "dodge accountability," but Biden's speech won't be "political" and isn't about "one political party."

Then why is Biden's speech billed as addressing a "battle" for America? A battle requires sides, Biden vs... who exactly? Presumably it's not against, primarily at least, his teleprompter. Of course the president's primetime speech from Independence Hall — an ironic venue given his attempt to increase dependence on the government and his laundry list of unconstitutional executive actions — will be a broadside attack on conservatives and Republicans. To oppose his and Democrats' exceedingly radical view is to oppose America and all that's good and righteous. Those have been the left's rules of engagement for decades and they're not going to change now with Biden and his party on the ropes ahead of November's midterms.