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U.S. President Joe Biden had harsh words to describe Trump-allied Republicans on Thursday, as he held his first political rally in the run-up to November elections, accusing the group of embracing violence and hatred, and saying they edged toward “semi-fascism” at an earlier fund-raising stop.
Biden, kicking off a coast-to-coast tour, is looking to lend his support to Democratic candidates and prevent those Republicans from taking control of Congress by touting the sharp differences between the two major U.S. parties, and calling on independent and Republican voters for help.
“It’s not hyperbole now you need to vote to literally save democracy again,” Biden told the crowd at a Democratic National Committee event at Richard Montgomery High School in a Maryland suburb of Washington.
“America must choose. You must choose. Whether our country will move forward or backward,” he said.
“Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice – to go backwards full of anger, violence, hate, and division,” he said, warning they “refuse to accept the will of the people.”
In the friendly confines of Maryland’s Montgomery County, where more than 78% of voters chose Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020, Biden took the stage to ask “Democrats, independents, and mainstream Republicans” to join together to commit to the future.
However, at least one attendee was not so friendly.
'You stole the election': Protestor ejected from Biden rally in Maryland | The Post Millennial https://t.co/TDB1MqJnxe
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 26, 2022
Before the rally, Biden met Democratic donors for a $1 million party fundraiser in a backyard in a leafy, upper-class neighborhood north of Washington.
Strolling with a handheld mic, Biden talked about the supposed catastrophe facing the United States and the world from climate change. Without shouldering any of the blame, he also spoke about economic upheaval and the future of China. But he focused most of his remarks on the direction of the Republican Party.
“We’re seeing now either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA agenda,” Biden said, referring to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Biden agenda on the line
Republicans are hoping to ride voter discontent with record levels of inflation, disastrous foreign policy, and questions about Biden‘s domestic policies, family corruption, as well as his mental fortitude to victory in November, and they have history on their side. The party that controls the White House usually loses seats in Congress in a new president’s first midterm elections, and political analysts predict Republicans have a solid chance of taking control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Democrats hold only a thin majority in the House, while the Senate is evenly divided, with the vice president’s tie-breaking power giving Democrats control.
Republican control of one or both chambers could thwart Biden‘s legislative agenda for the second half of his four-year term. Heavy losses could also intensify questions about whether Biden should run for re-election in 2024 or hand the nomination over to a younger generation.
But Biden and his team are increasingly hopeful that a string of recent legislative successes, and the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that gave back the legislative decision on abortion to the states, will generate strong turnout among Democrats.
The announcement this week that Biden would use an executive order to transfer student loan debt onto American taxpayers led GOP legislators, economists, activists, and even fellow Democrats to criticize it. Many have characterized the plan as wealth redistribution that will fuel rising inflation and hurt Americans who never attended college, worked to pay for it out of pocket, or have already paid off their loans.
The rally in Maryland was promoted by groups including abortion provider Planned Parenthood and gun control activists Moms Demand, as Democrats lean on gun control legislation and Republican-backed abortion bans to improve their midterm prospects.
Democrats want Biden‘s trip to boost the president’s poor poll numbers and draw attention to what agenda achievements he has been able to accomplish. But some candidates for Congress worry that campaigning with Biden will hurt them in the Nov. 8 election.
Biden, whose latest approval rating is 41%, is polling lower than most, if not all, Democratic candidates in competitive races, often by double digits, Democratic pollsters said.
Copyright 2022 Thomson/Reuters (Additions and edits by Jacob Fuller, FISM News).