Democrats in tough reelection races want nothing to do with President Joe Biden’s recent campaign to label half the country as a “threat to democracy.”
Asked to comment on Biden’s Philadelphia speech, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) told WMUR, “I think President Biden’s comments just painted with way too broad a brush.” Hassan will not have a set Republican opponent till after the Sept. 13 primary, but a recent University of New Hampshire poll showed her up only 1 point over the Republican front-runner.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who is also locked in a close reelection fight, denied even watching Biden’s speech. “I think a president has a right to give his opinion,” Kelly told the Associated Press. “You know, I don’t share all of his opinions. But he has a right to give his opinion.”
Hassan and Kelly have every reason to distance themselves from Biden’s divisive rhetoric. A new Reuters poll shows that the vast majority, 59%, said Biden’s speech would only further divide the country.
Which isn’t surprising since Biden made clear his definition of “MAGA Republicans” who are a threat to “the very soul of this country” includes conservatives who are pro-life or support voter identification.
Biden himself seemed to back away from his own speech within just 24 hours of delivering it. Asked the next day if he believes all Trump voters are a threat to the country, Biden said, “I don’t consider any Trump supporter to be a threat to the country.”
This statement is impossible to reconcile with the speech he gave just hours earlier in which he said, “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.”
Trump supporters are either a threat to this country or they are not. Biden can’t have it both ways.