Mr. Biden's Regrettable Speech

After serving up one of the most divisive, vitriolic, insulting and contradictory presidential speeches in the history of the Republic Thursday night, President Biden decided on Friday to start moonwalking away from it.

 
Here's part of Jim Geraghty's analysis of the speech at NRO:

Last night, President Biden delivered a prime-time address to the country from Independence Hall, warning that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” and then he talked about the importance of national unity and the need to “respect our legitimate political differences.”

One moment, Biden would warn that MAGA Republicans:

...promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country. . . .

[they’re] determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.

The next moment, Biden would emphasize that, “I’m asking our nation to come together, to unite. . . . We, the people, will not let anyone or anything tear us apart.”

He warned that “MAGA Republicans” are “working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself. . . .

MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.”

Then, after warning that “MAGA Republicans” represented this dire and worsening threat and that “equality and democracy are under assault,” Biden further denounced them for being too dark and pessimistic in their vision of America: “MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair. They spread fear and lies — lies told for profit and power.”

Check the link for more of Geraghty's analysis.

One problem with the president's speech that Geraghty doesn't touch on is Mr. Biden's fondness for the term "MAGA Republican." Exactly who are these nefarious individuals out to destroy our country?

Is anyone who voted for Donald Trump a "MAGA Republican" or do only those who wear the hat qualify?

Is a MAGA Republican anyone who wants to Make America Great Again?

Shouldn't that include everyone in the country? Or is it only Republicans who want America to return to the principles that made it a shining city on a hill for millions of the world's tired, hungry and poor?

The President was asked the next day to clarify exactly who he was referring to in such vitriolic terms, terms that implicitly invite violence (If someone is a threat to our nation, after all, then the more unstable of our fellow citizens will think that sufficient reason to take up arms against them).

His response was unfortunately no more lucid than his earlier remarks.

Reporter Peter Doocy asked the president, "Do you consider all Trump supporters to be a threat to the country?" To which the president replied,

"I don't consider any Trump supporter to be a threat. I do think anyone who calls for the use of violence and fails to condemn violence when it's used, refuse to acknowledge an election has been won... That is a threat to democracy."

Not only is that a shameless bit of prevarication, not only does it plainly contradict what he said Thursday night, but it also impugns fellow Democrats like Stacey Abrams and Hillary Clinton, both of whom failed to acknowledge that they had been defeated in their most recent elections.

In any case, Friday's "clarification" is simply false. Here's what the president said Thursday night:

Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.

Now, I want to be very clear — very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology.

I know because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.

But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.

Mr. Biden told Doocy that he doesn't consider "any Trump supporter" to be a threat after having insisted to the nation that the "MAGA Republicans," whoever they are, "represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic."

He even tweeted it, or somebody in his administration did:

"Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are a threat to the very soul of this country."

Surely, "MAGA" Republicans, whatever else they are, are supporters of Donald Trump, and while Mr. Biden might not wish to lump all Republicans into his "basket of deplorables" he should be apprised of the fact that Mr. Trump received more votes in the last election than any other candidate in history, save Mr. Biden himself.

In other words, a vast swath of Americans supported Mr. Trump and still do. Mr. Biden has declared them to be almost terrorists.

Mr. Biden won the presidency in 2020 largely because voters believed him when he said he was going to unite the country. However, his inauguration was the high-water mark of unity.

Since then his rhetoric has been more divisive, perhaps, than that of any president in our history. Certainly it's been more divisive than that of any president since the Civil War.

Whatever his intentions may be, the practical effect of Mr. Biden's rhetoric is tearing us apart. We might wish he would just stop it.