WASHINGTON — Nearly two years after he defeated Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has some unfinished business he’s aiming to settle with the restive forces of Trumpism.
The president is set to use a prime time address today to frame the upcoming midterm elections as part of an ongoing battle for the “soul of the nation” — a reprise of his 2020 campaign theme that he’s now using to cast the current stakes in as dire terms as those that sent him to the Oval Office two years ago.
Biden, who largely avoided even referring to “the former guy” by name during his first year in office, has grown increasingly vocal in calling out Trump personally, which White House officials say reflects the urgency with which he views the threat of Trump and his devotees.
His speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, less than 10 weeks before the midterms, comes as Biden is feeling emboldened by a series of legislative wins. He is sharpening his attacks on Republicans as the “ultra-MAGA” party — a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan — that opposes his agenda, embraces conservative ideological proposals and spreads Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election.
“What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy,” Biden told Democrats at a Maryland fundraiser last week. “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism.”
In his address, White House officials said, Biden will hark back to the 2017 white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Va., which he says brought him out of political retirement to challenge Trump. He’ll argue that the country faces a similar crossroads in the coming months.
“The president thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday. “It’s not stopping. It’s continuing.”
Biden allies stressed that while the president was set to condemn “ultra-MAGA” Republicans, he was not rejecting the entirety of the GOP and would use his remarks to call on traditional Republicans to join him in condemning Trump and his adherents. Still, he faces a balancing act, as more than 74 million Americans voted for Trump in 2020.
“I respect conservative Republicans,” Biden said last week. “I don’t respect these MAGA Republicans.”
Larry Diamond, an expert on democracy and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said Biden faces a difficult situation as he confronts Trump. Calling him out for attacks on democracy “can be manipulated or framed as being partisan. And if you don’t call it out, you are shrinking from an important challenge in the defense of democracy.”
“Wishing it away, or shrinking away from the challenge out of fear of appearing partisan will do no good in my view,” he said. “The threats are too grave and too imminent.”
