White House Press Secretary Defends Biden’s Decision to Liken Republicans to Fascists
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The White House is doubling down on President Biden’s recent claim that the modern GOP is flirting with fascism.
“What MAGA Republicans have done…You look at the definition of fascism and you think about what they’re doing in attacking our democracy, what they’re doing in taking away our freedoms, taking away our rights, our voting rights. That is what that is,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing Friday.
Her comment was responding to a reporter, who asked whether the Biden administration had any doubts about characterizing Republicans as extremists. He reminded her of Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated derision of Trump voters as a “basket of deplorables” who are “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it.” Some pollsters believe that that derogation backfired and cost her the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won.
At a Thursday fundraiser for Democrats in Bethesda, Md., Biden compared the conservative worldview as a whole to something dictatorial.
“What we’re seeing now is the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism,” Biden said.
As Jean-Pierre alluded to, Democrats have alleged that Republicans have sought to erode voting rights in Georgia and other states. However, record-high early-voting turnout in the Georgia primaries indicated that the GOP-backed election integrity legislation has not prevented people from going to the ballot box while establishing safeguards that minimize cheating and ensure legitimacy.
Since the January 6 Capitol Riot, Democrats have intensified rhetoric that the GOP is a grave threat to American democracy and is harboring hateful radicals possibly including white supremacists.
Last month, the former CIA director and former NSA director under the Bush administration claimed that the modern GOP is the most treacherous political force he has encountered in his lifetime.
General Michael Hayden retweeted the following statement, which talked about Republicans like a national security enemy: “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”
