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President Biden on Friday said he does not consider any Donald Trump supporters to be a “threat” to the U.S., though he said the failure to condemn violence for political gains was “inappropriate.”
The president’s comments were in answer to a question from Fox News’ Peter Doocy who asked if Biden considered all Trump supporters to be a threat to the country less than a day after he blasted “MAGA Republicans” in a speech Thursday.
President Biden listens during an event on the American Rescue Plan in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“You keep trying to make that case. I don’t consider any Trump supporters a threat to the country,” Biden said. “I do think anyone who calls for the use of violence, refuses to acknowledge an election…changing the way you count votes, that is a threat to democracy.”
That seemed to contradict his Thursday speech, when he said that U.S. politics is in a battle between “equality and democracy,” and that the GOP have assaulted those principles.
“As I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault. We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise,” he said. “There’s 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.”
He further tweeted that Trump and “MAGA Republicans” are “a threat to the very soul of this country.”
In the Thursday speech, Biden also said that “not every Republican, not even a majority Republicans are MAGA Republicans.”
Philadelphia, USA- September 1st: President Joe Biden gives a speech on protecting American democracy in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 1st, 2022. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
(Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology,” he continued. “I know because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.”
Biden received pushback following his Thursday night address, and seemed to soften his stance when pressed by Doocy Friday.
“Everything we stand for rests on the platform of democracy,” he told Fox News. “The people who voted for Donald Trump, support him now, they weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol, they weren’t voting for overthrowing the election – they were voting for a philosophy he put forward.”
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“I am not talking about anything other than, it is inappropriate…the failure to recognize and condemn violence when it is used for political purposes. Failure to condemn the manipulation [of] election outcomes,” Biden said.
“Failure to acknowledge when elections were won or lost,” he added.
