It was just a little over two weeks ago when President Joe Biden gave an official speech outside of Independence Hall in Philadelphia during which he quite memorably demonized his political opponents, those "MAGA Republicans," and the threat he claims they pose to this country. The week before that, he called them "semi-fascists." Now, we're all supposed to believe he wants to "foster unity."
On Thursday, the president held what's called "The United We Stand Summit: Taking Action to Prevent and Address Hate-Motivated Violence and Foster Unity." The White House even released a fact-sheet, which it promoted on Twitter, as did Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, despite how she too has demonized the president's opponents.
Today, at the White House, President Biden hosted the United We Stand Summit to address hate-motivated violence and foster unity.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 15, 2022
Today’s Summit is just the beginning of this work. Every American has a role to play in this cause.
https://t.co/pnMYw14LDu
In addition to mentioning "hate-filled violence" when it comes to attacks that have occurred over the past few years, the fact-sheet seeks to emphasize a sense of "unity."
At one point it read, with added emphasis:
The Summit will put forward a shared vision for a more united America, demonstrating that the vast majority of Americans agree that there is no place for hate-fueled violence in our country, and that when Americans stand united to renew civic bonds and heal divides, we can help prevent acts of hate and violence. Today’s Summit is just the beginning of this work, and every American has a role to play in this cause. Today, President Biden will rally a whole-of-society response to prevent, respond to, and recover from hate-fueled violence, and to foster national unity.
Speaking of what "the vast majority of Americans agree" on, polls show that they don't find Biden's speech from earlier this month to be appropriate. The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll also found that just 40 percent think that speech will "unite the country and help move forward," while 60 percent agreed "does it divide and hold it back."
The fact-sheet also points to involvement from social media platforms, which may further raise concerns beyond those that already exist when it comes to collusion.
During his remarks, Biden credited the "Unite the Right" rally at Charlottesville from August 2017 as what motivated him to run, during which he, for certainly not the first time, miscategorized former President Donald Trump's "fine people on both sides" remarks.
In reality, Trump made clear "I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally" also mentioning, "but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay?"
Biden then had the gall to talk about how "there are core values that should bring us together as Americans."
The most blatantly hypocritical point of his speech came later, though. He told the crowd that "we must choose to be a nation of hope, unity, and optimism or a nation of fear and division and hate," going on to also tell them "certainly, don’t turn a fellow American into a sworn enemy. Building bridges across divides doesn’t mean we’re sacrificing our own beliefs and our core values. To be a nation of hope and unity and optimism, we have to recognize that there are not — we’re not helpless in the face of hate and fuel violence."
Joe “MAGA Republicans” Biden:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 15, 2022
“Our differences certainly don’t turn a fellow American into a sworn enemy.” pic.twitter.com/QXusIlzR3J
Biden doesn't seem to be living up to his own advice. When it comes to Biden's speech in Philadelphia, another poll from The Trafalgar Group and Convention of States, found that the speech "represents a dangerous escalation in rhetoric and is designed to incite conflict amongst Americans."
It also seems that the Biden Administration has a particular preoccupation when it comes to focusing on "white supremacy" cases. This is even to the point where the FBI has reportedly been pressured to come up with such cases in order to fill internal quotas, as Leah covered earlier on Friday.
Sure enough, at one point the fact-sheet indicated in a bullet point that "Federal agencies are announcing new steps to strengthen the resources available to local schools, law enforcement agencies, and cultural institutions like museums and libraries to prevent and respond to hate-fueled violence."
Biden's remarks were even more clear-cut when it comes to such priorities. "You know, as a result, our very own intelligence agencies — our own intelligence agencies in the United States of America have determined that domestic terrorism rooted in white supremacy is the greatest terrorist threat to our Homeland today," he claimed.
Unable to stop himself from promoting his supposed successes and call for more legislative priorities, he also called for passing a ban on so-called assault weapons.
This piece has been corrected to include mention of Convention of States' role in the poll with the Trafalgar Group.