During a Labor Day speech, Milwaukee voters applauded President Joe Biden on Monday after he stopped to address a heckler.
“As I said last week, we remain in the battle for the soul of America,” Biden told the crowd before being interrupted by the heckler. The audience booed the heckler, but Biden told them to “let (the heckler) go.”
“Let him go,” Biden said. “Look, everybody’s entitled to be an idiot…OK?”
Biden issued a warning about “extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress” who are “full of anger, violence, hate, and division,” Fox News reported. The comments come directly from a speech he made last week called the “battle for the soul of the nation.”
That speech, held in Philadelphia, marked continued attacks on supporters of Trump, reiterating earlier attacks in which he claimed Republicans embraced “semi-fascism” at an Aug. 25 fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in Maryland, and also attacked “MAGA Republicans” during a Tuesday speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Biden called “MAGA Republicans” a threat to democracy and doubled down on his rhetoric calling supporters of former President Donald trump “extremists.”
WMAL talk show host Larry O’Connor threw the epithet Biden directed at Republicans back at the president.
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“Dude… This isn’t even ‘semi’ fascist,” O’Connor posted on Twitter. “This is full monty Mussolini.”
But the stage drew more attention, as one post on Twitter compared it to the throne room of Supreme Leader Snoke from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Other users compared it to scenes from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Network,” and “V for Vendetta.”
“It’s spooky season,” Erin Perrine, a former Republican communications professional, posted.
“Dark blood red background, evil and condescending tone of voice & squinting eyes,” former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell posted. “Negative words & themes – and constant condemnation. Who staged this? Who wrote this? Huge mistake.”
Others took a more direct approach to Biden’s speech.
“What a bunch of dishonest, divisive, and gaslighting nonsense,” Harmeet Dhillon, a top Republican lawyer, tweeted.
Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee rebutted Biden’s claims.
“The extreme MAGA agenda is securing the border, reducing inflation, lowering taxes, and upholding the Constitution,” she tweeted.
“Biden is the most condescending president of my lifetime,” former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley posted. “He’s done nothing to unite the nation. Nothing to bring healing. Nothing to alleviate the pain millions of Americans feel everyday. He’s been a divider in chief and come November he must hear from all of us.”
Even some CNN personalities raised concerns.
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“Whatever you think of this speech the military is supposed to be apolitical,” “New Day” host Brianna Keilar posted on Twitter. “Positioning Marines in uniform behind President Biden for a political speech flies in the face of that. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. It’s wrong when Republicans do it.”
“There’s nothing unusual or wrong with a President delivering a political speech — it’s inherent in the job description — but doing it against a backdrop of two Marines standing at attention and the Marine Band is a break with White House traditions,” CNN correspondent Jeff Zeleny tweeted.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Free Press.
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