Karine Jean-Pierre: Biden sees MAGA Republicans as ‘an extremist threat to our democracy’
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a briefing on Wednesday that President Biden thinks "MAGA Republicans" are "an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights."
Imagine if you will that somewhere in America a drunken, middle-aged White man drove his car into a teenager, killing him and then told the police he did so because the teen was a member of Black Lives Matter, or a gay rights or abortion activist. It would be the biggest news story in the country. But what if he said he killed a "Republican extremist?" We can now say that this version of the story is met with media crickets.
Cayler Ellingson is dead. Allegedly he was run over and left to die by Shannon Brandt. Although details of the tragedy are sketchy and still emerging, one thing is clear. Brandt invoked Joe Biden’s new favorite phrase, "Republican extremist," to justify his actions.
Only one of two things can be the case here. Either Brandt did believe Ellingson was a Republican extremist and therefore a fair target for killing, or he thought that in today’s society that excuse when talking to the authorities would have purchase and credibility. After all, if these people are destroying the country and the very fabric of democracy as the president claims, why aren’t they fair targets?
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A competent news media that was serving the public interest would be holding the White House’s feet to the fire after the president’s own rhetoric, literally word for word, was used by an alleged killer to excuse vehicular homicide.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on what he calls the "continued battle for the soul of the nation" in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 2022. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
Mind you, this is the same news media that believes Donald Trump started a coup because he used the term "fight" in a political sense. This is the same media that sets its hair on fire if a Republican uses the image of a target in a political ad. So why is Biden getting a hall pass for ratcheting up division and anger in a way directly tied to violence?
Their likely excuse, built on a foundation of lies, would be that while right-wing political violence is the greatest terror threat facing America, left-wing political violence is rare, just isolated incidents. The George Floyd riots weren’t political violence that killed people, left city blocks aflame and weren’t arguably the worst political violence since the 1960s, they were just peaceful protests.
Attacks on dozens of pregnancy centers which offer alternatives to abortion, complete with an organization called "Jane’s Revenge" not only taking credit, but promising more, are no big deal, certainly not worth spilling precious progressive journalistic ink over.
Less than a month ago in these pages I warned that President Joe Biden’s dangerous rhetoric, calling American citizens semi-fascists, and MAGA extremists was very likely to lead to political violence. And here we are.
Biden says he is not talking about all Republicans when he uses this inflammatory language, but his words and that of his party show this just isn’t true.
In bemoaning the beliefs of these "MAGA" types, what do the president and Senat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., point to? Opposing abortion, willingness to change Social Security and Medicare, and refusal to sign on to big-spending packages. These are not MAGA Republican positions, they are just Republican positions and always have been.
What is shocking and amazing is that the president of the United States won’t walk back this dangerous political tactic even as it leads to violence.
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A selfish Biden is not going to sacrifice the small four-point bump in approval he got, mainly from fired up Democrats, even though the Dark Brandon act seems to be hurting his party among more moderate voters in key Senate races.
None of this is normal. It was abnormal for a president to attack half of the country as "semi-fascists" and it is certainly abnormal that he refuses to address the violence done in the name of his cause, or to change course and temper the flames of a kindling nation.
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Biden was already a failed president before he entered his stark and divisive Philadelphia speech bathed in an angry black and red; today he is also a dangerous president. The legacy he seems most likely to leave is one of tearing our country apart while setting off division and hatred. It is already happening. But the president of the United States and his lockstep news media just don’t care.
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