Chris Lange, FISM News
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President Joe Biden continued to rail against “MAGA Republicans” in a duo of Labor Day speeches in Milwaukee and Pennsylvania on Monday as part of his attempt to win back working-class Americans who have felt increasingly abandoned by the leftward lurch of the Democratic party.
Addressing hundreds of Milwaukee union members Monday, the president returned to his favorite subject, resuming the dark, anti-Trump rhetoric used in last week’s Philadelphia address for which he drew sharp criticism over his sweeping condemnation of Trump voters as “extremists” who “threaten democracy.” The backlash appeared to have prompted a noticeable, albeit brief, distinction in Monday’s speech.
“I want to be very clear upfront, not every Republican is a MAGA Republican. Not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology,” Biden said. “I know because I’ve been able to work with mainstream Republicans in my whole career.”
“But the extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress have chosen to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate, and division,” he said.
The president also used the opportunity to take aim at GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who is facing a tough reelection battle in the state.
Biden scornfully referred to Johnson as one of the “MAGA Republicans, the far right, the Trumpies” linking the senator to Trump’s 2020 claims of election fraud and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot.
“Sen. Johnson said it was a – by and large a peaceful protest,” Biden said. “Have you seen the video of what happened that day? Listened to the stories of the members from both parties of Congress and the jeopardy they were put in? Cops attacked and assaulted, speared with flag poles, sprayed with mace, stomped down, dragged, brutalized.”
“Extreme MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and our economic security. They embrace political violence,” Biden added.
The president also accused Johnson of wanting to “savage” programs like Medicare and Social Security, referring to National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) proposal to sunset federal legislation after five years.
Johnson fired back in a tweet, pointing out multiple crises piling up under Biden’s leadership.
“President Biden is celebrating Labor Day in Wisconsin, but he certainly hasn’t helped Wisconsin workers. 40-year high inflation, record gas prices, unsafe communities, rising crime, [and] baby formula shortages. Democrat policies have been disastrous for all Wisconsinites,” he wrote.
Ahead of the Milwaukee speech, Biden told a small crowd of United Steelworkers union workers in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania Monday: “We have a choice. Trump and the MAGA Republicans made their choice. We can work to have a better America, or we can continue down this sliding path to oblivion where we don’t want to go,” he said.
At one point, Biden claimed that he had been “very engaged” in the Civil Rights movement as a youngster, though he made, and subsequently retracted, the same claim decades ago.
In 1987, Joe Biden claimed he marched in the civil rights movement. A few months later, Biden disavowed the claim. Decades later, during the Obama era, and more recently on the campaign trail, he started making the same claims again. https://t.co/NAlMJ6ZTq7 pic.twitter.com/tpmE6VXmG6
— The Intercept (@theintercept) February 14, 2020
The Republican National Convention highlighted the lie on Monday.
JOE BIDEN: "I got very engaged in my case in the civil rights movement. As a kid, I worked a lot in the movement."
This is a lie that has been repeatedly debunked. pic.twitter.com/FPjjXaGM7p
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 5, 2022
While Biden continues to harp on the threat of “MAGA extremists,” Republicans have been focusing on inflation, the border crisis, foreign policy failures, and several other problems that persist at a time when Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
This article was partially informed by Reuters, The Gateway Pundit, and Fox News reports.