Trump-Led Extremism Is a Direct Threat to America, Biden Plans to Say in Speech

 

Trump-Led Extremism Is a Direct Threat to America, Biden Plans to Say in Speech

 

The president’s prime-time speech in Philadelphia comes amid deep national divisions and is intended to deliver a dark message about threats to the fabric of American democracy.

 

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Sept. 1, 2022

Updated 3:41 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/us/politics/biden-philadelphia-speech.html

 

WASHINGTON — President Biden will travel to Philadelphia on Thursday for a prime-time address in which he will accuse Republicans loyal to former President Donald J. Trump of embracing a form of extremism that is a direct threat to the United States.

 

Speaking on the condition of anonymity to preview the speech, a senior White House official said the president would state in direct language how “MAGA Republicans” have put the nation’s institutions at risk and undermined democratic values.

 

The focus on threats to democracy is a return to the issue that Mr. Biden said drove him to run for the presidency, after white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.

 

The speech is intended to deliver a dark message about threats to the very fabric of American democracy.

 

But aides said Mr. Biden would try to strike a tricky balance nine weeks before the midterm elections, seeking to offer a sense of optimism about the country’s future and urging Americans to fight against extremism.

 

The stakes are high for the president and his political advisers, who believe they must cast the election as a stark choice for voters between Democrats and a return to the extremism of “MAGA Republicans” loyal to Mr. Trump.

 

In recent days, Mr. Biden has replaced his usual calls for unity with sharp condemnations of “MAGA extremists,” saying Republicans have embraced “semi-fascism.”

 

Republicans have cited the president’s language as evidence that he has fallen short of his promise to bring the country together.

 

“Biden has pitted neighbors against each other, labeled half of Americans as fascist and tarnished any idea of his promise of ‘unity,’” Emma Vaughn, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement.

 

The trip on Thursday will be Mr. Biden’s second to Pennsylvania this week, and he is expected to make a third on Labor Day. Pennsylvania, a swing state, will hold crucial races for the House and Senate as well as a closely watched governor’s race.

 

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The president had long planned to give another speech on the state of democracy but grew more motivated in recent weeks by persistent false claims of election fraud and the midterms, a White House official said.

 

During his first year in office, Mr. Biden promised to bring a sense of normalcy to the White House and largely ignored Mr. Trump. But the former president is once again at the fore, with continuing investigations into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and an F.B.I. search last month of his residence in Florida for classified documents. Mr. Biden is trying to frame a vote for Republicans as a vote for extremism.

 

“I think finally the party and the people are waking up to see we have to hold these folks accountable,” said Quentin James, the president of Collective PAC, an organization dedicated to electing African-American officials.

 

Mr. James said the speech might be able to galvanize voters who are frustrated over economic concerns that have driven down the president’s approval ratings.

 

“You may be paying a little more for your groceries, but the reality of what’s on the other side? It’s much more dire,” he said.

 

The speech comes at a moment of deep national divisions.

 

According to an NBC News poll released last month, nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction. The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security have issued several warnings about how false claims regarding election fraud are motivating extremists attacks.

 

“We are in a crisis in this country. There’s no doubt about it. Not just in terms of the sanctity of the vote or trusting our votes will be counted,” said Allida Black, a historian at the University of Virginia who met privately with Mr. Biden last month to discuss the state of democracy. “We seem to attack rather than embrace responsibility and accountability.”

 

It is not the first time Mr. Biden has delivered a speech that is not about policies or campaigns but rather the morality of the country. He embarked on a “soul of the nation” bus tour during the presidential campaign and committed to unifying America during his inauguration.

 

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent covering a range of domestic and international issues in the Biden White House, including homeland security and extremism. He joined The Times in 2019 as the homeland security correspondent. @KannoYoungs