WASHINGTON – President Biden dismissed criticisms Monday that he is vilifying Republicans by calling former President Donald Trump’s supporters extremists and threats to democracy.
Republicans and some Democrats have accused Biden of fueling divisions for likening Trump’s Make America Great Again movement to “semi-fascism.”
“I want to be very clear upfront. Not every Republican is a MAGA-Republican. Not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology. I know because I’ve been able to work with mainstream Republicans my whole career,” Biden said in a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee.
“But the extreme-minded Republicans in Congress have chosen to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division, but together we can and we must choose a different path.”
Biden said that the United States had been able to overcome challenges, because it has been a “nation of unity, of hope, of optimism, not a nation of division and violence and hatred that is being preached by some others.”
Biden last week warned in a prime-time address in Philadelphia that equality and democracy were “under assault” in the United States and singled out Trump by name. He accused the former president and his supporters of stoking political violence with their refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden said in his Philadelphia speech.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican who served as U.N. ambassador under Trump, was critical of Biden’s speech in tweets.
“He’s done nothing to unite the nation. Nothing to bring healing. Nothing to alleviate the pain millions of Americans feel everyday. He’s been a divider in chief and come November he must hear from all of us,” she said.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said after Biden’s semi-fascism comment that while she has concerns about about political violence, “I think President Biden’s comments just painted with way too broad a brush.”
In his Monday remarks in Wisconsin, Biden referred to some Republicans in Congress as “Trumpies” and said they would pursue policies that would undermine the social safety net.
“But here’s the point: The biggest contrast from what MAGA Republicans – the extreme right, the – the “Trumpies” – they want to go to – these MAGA Republicans in Congress are coming for your Social Security as well.”
Biden’s remarks at Laborfest – an event organized each year by the Milwaukee Area Labor Council and the AFL-CIO – came shortly after a judge approved Trump’s request to appoint a special master to review documents taken from his Florida home by the Department of Justice.
The president did not comment on the court ruling during his remarks.
Biden did invoke Trump and his supporters visit to a United Steelworkers of America chapter in the the Pittsburgh-area later in the day, saying that democracy is on the line in America and the country faces a choice in the midterm election.
“Trump and the MAGA Republicans made their choice,” Biden said.
Unofficial midterm kickoff
Although Wisconsin was his first stop on Monday, there has been no place like home for Biden when it comes to the Pennsylvania-born politician’s midterm election travel.
The battleground state that Biden barely won has emerged as a focal point for the president, whose Labor Day trip to the Pittsburgh area marks the third time in one week he has made Pennsylvania the backdrop for campaign-style events.
Competitive gubernatorial, House and Senate races and the pivotal presidential election states have been a draw for Biden, who is increasing his travel as summer comes to a close and the country’s focus shifts to fall elections.
Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who is competing for an open seat in the U.S. Senate against Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, met with Biden while the president was in Pittsburgh.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for governor, attended a crime-oriented speech Biden gave in Pennsylvania last week, while Fetterman, who did not, indicated prior to the Labor Day event hat he would press the president to decriminalize marijuana during his Pittsburgh visit.
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Both Democrats are in tight races against candidates backed by former President Donald Trump. GOP state senator Doug Mastriano is vying for the governor’s mansion and appeared alongside Trump and Oz at a Saturday evening rally in Wilkes-Barre.
Trump won the state in 2016 and rallied his supporters Saturday a county over from Biden’s birth city of Scranton. Biden beat Trump in 2020 by fewer than 100,000 votes but lost the county that includes Wilkes-Barre, which he also chose are the site for his public safety speech last Tuesday.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers spoke at the Biden event in Milwaukee, a county that Biden won soundly in 2020. Evers is seeking reelection and will face off against businessman Tim Michels in the general election.
Biden said that Wisconsin’s Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin couldn’t be at the event. Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, who is competing against incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson for the U.S. Senate, also could not attend the rally, Biden said in his remarks.
Locking arms with labor
Labor has been a major base of support for Biden, and the AFL-CIO says it will be boosting his agenda to workers this fall.
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio, which Biden has plans to visit on Friday, are among the nine states in which AFL-CIO says it is mobilizing voters in the coming months with an eye on 2024 and future elections. All three states have gubernatorial and Senate races on the ballot this year.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been seeking to grow support from within the labor movement, also spent her Monday at events in the northeast.
She spoke at the Annual Greater Boston Labor Council Breakfast and met separately with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and union members.
Harris’ office did not say why she chose Boston, but the city has a media market that conveniently stretches across the border into New Hampshire – another state with a critical Senate race on the ballot this year.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Biden dismisses criticism of MAGA Republican remarks
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