WaPo:
President Biden delivered a forceful address Thursday on what he called a dangerous assault on American democracy, warning that “too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal” as “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
Biden’s speech, outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, was a remarkable assessment from a sitting president that the fabric of American governance is under serious threat — “we do ourselves no favors to pretend otherwise,” he said. While Biden did not name Republicans other than the former president, he warned of election deniers who have won Republican primaries and those who have sought to overturn legitimate elections.
“We are still at our core a democracy — yet history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader, and the willingness to engage in political violence, is fatal to democracy,” Biden said. “There is no question that the Republican Party is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.”…
Some Republicans, including those who have repudiated Trump, criticized Biden’s speech as divisive.
“I don’t hate Biden’s thesis, but that speech was so full of divisive language that goes well beyond the ‘MAGA base.’ A step backward for Biden on a critically important topic,” Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump official who has since criticized the former president and his political movement, wrote on Twitter.
Biden said Thursday that he was not taking issue with those who disagree with him or come from another political party, but rather with those who challenge the principles the country was founded on.
“I believe it’s my duty to level with you, to tell the truth, no matter how difficult, no matter how painful,” Biden said. “And here in my view is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election.”
He added, “They promote authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to our pursuit of justice, to the rule of the law, to the very soul of this country.”