President Joe Biden's COVID-19 diagnosis sparked a mad dash to get him back to his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware residence, the UK Daily Mail reported. One of the news outlet's reporters who was onboard Air Force One described the ordeal.
Senior White House correspondent Emily Goodin was among reporters in the press pool who had accompanied the president to Las Vegas, Nevada. The reporter explained what led up to the moment when Air Force One abruptly left town with the press and president on board.
Biden spent Monday, July 15, campaigning as planned. Goodwin said that "despite escalating calls from within the Democratic party for the president to quit the 2024 race, he appeared to be in a jovial mood when he arrived in the afternoon at Joint Base Andrews, outside of Washington, D.C."
The next day was another successful stop, in which he delivered what the reporter called "one of his more impressive teleprompter speeches at the NAACP convention," Goodwin recalled. However, by that Wednesday, everything had changed.
Goodwin said that "by Wednesday at noon, it was a dramatically different story" from the rest of the trip. "The President was running about an hour behind schedule," which the reporter said "wasn't unusual" as Biden is "habitually late."
However, it was after the presidential motorcade and the press made their way to the next stop at a Mexican restaurant that Goodwin noticed a change. The Secret Service attempted to hide Biden from photographers as he entered Lindo Michoacan's dining room.
"When he finally stepped through the door, his appearance was shocking. He looked pale, weak, exhausted, and shuffled slowly across the room," Goodwin said. The reporters in the press pool "all agreed" that he looked unwell.
Afterward, Biden did some interviews while the press waited. However, after some hours of waiting on him without word on what would happen next, they finally got the email from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
"President Biden tested positive for COVID-19. He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all his duties fully during that time," the email said. This meant that the press was going along for the ride.
Goodwin described a hasty takeoff. "Air Force One was flying so fast that I was shaking in my seat. Less than 30 minutes ago, my colleagues in the White House press corps and I had received word – just before the rest of the world – that President Biden had been diagnosed with COVID," Goodin shared.
"Now we were joining him on a mad rush back from Las Vegas to the Bidens' Rehoboth Beach getaway in Delaware. Moments after fastening my seatbelt, the massive engines of the presidential Boeing 747 roared to life," Goodwin recalled.
Goodwin's account seems to hint that the return trip was more of an emergency situation than was previously reported to the public. "The flight attendants, in their custom blue uniforms, stumbled in the aisles as the jet's nose pointed skyward," Goodwin said.
"Tray tables shook. Reporters held up their water glasses so they wouldn't spill. Most concerning, though, was that we had no idea what was going on," she added. Then, "in less than four days' time, his 52-year career in politics would come to a dramatic end" when Biden stepped down from his reelection campaign, Goodwin later said.
There was much speculation about what happened between Biden's departure from Las Vegas and his announcement about backing out of his reelection campaign. Now, it appears the situation was more dire than the public was previously led to believe.
The Secret Service reportedly asked former President Donald Trump to nix outdoor rallies after the agency failed to protect him from an assassination attempt, Breitbart reported. Trump was wounded in the right ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Anonymous sources claim that the Secret Service is urging Trump to move his popular rallies to indoor venues. Following this advice, the Trump campaign reportedly said it is attempting to book "basketball arenas and other large spaces" for upcoming events.
Trump has good reason to follow this advice after the Secret Service allowed 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to fire on the former president. Trump sustained a wound from "a bullet that pierced the upper part" of his ear, which outraged the campaign.
During a congressional hearing this week, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle admitted that her agency dropped the ball on his security detail. Cheatle resigned following her appearance before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday.
Trump's campaign has agreed to the move because it's easier for security personnel "to control who comes through a finite number of doors." However, the change does pose other challenges for the Trump campaign.
Renting indoor spaces has higher costs associated with it, which means more funds are drained from the campaign coffers for the same rallies. Moreover, one campaign official pointed out that it also changes the impact of these rallies.
"Obviously, with an indoor venue, you have a capacity. It doesn’t pack the same punch," the anonymous campaign official said.
"There’s something about being at one of those outdoor rallies," the unnamed official added. Indeed, Trump has built his reputation on drawing large, energetic crowds that motivate his loyal supporters.
However, it seems that the Secret Service is either unable to or not interested in making sure the former president is safe anymore. If that's the case, Trump has more to worry about than just his rallies.
The agency in charge of protecting the former president is guilty of profound failures that almost cost Trump his life. In the aftermath of the shooting, several shocking facts have come to light about the state of Secret Service protection.
According to the New York Post, Cheatle admitted that her agency made several blunders that led to the assassination attempt. One of the most notorious was her claim that the roof Crooks reportedly fired his shots from was unguarded because it was "sloped" and became a "safety factor."
Because of this decision, Crooks had a perfect vantage point just 130 years away from the former president. The gunman was killed by Secret Service counter-snipers, but not before wounding Trump, killing one man, and wounding two others.
Crooks also wasn't stopped despite Secret Service spotting the young man more than an hour before Trump took the stage. Rather than telling the former president to wait before going on, the agency allowed the one person they were charged with protecting to walk right into the would-be assassin's sites.
Trump relies on his outdoor rallies to drum up enthusiasm among voters. He shouldn't have to curtail them because the Secret Service didn't adequately perform its duties.
The Supreme Court has turned down more than two dozen requests to rehear cases that were already decided by the high court, Newsweek reported. This remedy is available only within 25 days of the high court's decision and is rarely granted.
The Supreme Court has the final say on the nation's legal battles, but litigants may have a second crack at their cases if they disagree with the court's initial decision. However, the door has closed for almost 30 cases as the court published its list on Monday.
"The Supreme Court granting a rehearing is extremely rare. There are two possible forms of a rehearing," explained University of Houston professor Alex Badas, who specializes in judicial politics.
"One after the merits decision. One after a denial of certiorari. Both are very rare," Badas added.
There are specific instances that often warrant rehearing, though it's never guaranteed. According to Badas, a rehearing is warranted if the court subsequently "issued a merits decision in another decision that changes how the Justice view the case they just denied."
That means that if a new case comes up after the court issues a writ of certiorari in a similar instance, it may warrant another look at the issue. Other instances for rehearing include cases where the justices did not participate in deciding it for one reason or another.
In one case, Samuel Alito simply didn't rule on a decision, prompting the participants to request a new hearing. In another, the litigants argued that Ketanji Brown Jackson and Justice Brett Kavanaugh weren't part of the decision and, therefore, deserved a second consideration.
Sometimes, it's an entire slate of liberal or conservative judges who don't participate which triggers the rehearing request. This happened in Brunson v. Sotomayor, et al., where liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Jackson were named as defendants and therefore sat out the decision.
On the conservative side, Alito and Kavanaugh, along with Justices Amy Coney Barrett, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Chief Justice John Roberts, were named as defendants and therefore did not rule on a case that requested a rehearing. The request for rehearing was denied.
Among the cases decided this term were a pair that were quite consequential. Most notable was the court's decision on presidential immunity in Donald Trump v. United States, according to U.S. News & World Reports.
The court heard arguments from both sides about whether former President Donald Trump could be held accountable for the events of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot or whether presidential immunity applied. In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court decided Trump had immunity but sent it back to the lower courts to decide exactly which actions that applied to.
In another case regarding Jan. 6, the court was asked to examine whether the government overreached when it charged upwards of 300 Trump supporters with "obstructing or impeding an official proceeding." The uprising took place against the backdrop of the certification of the 2020 presidential election that ended with Joe Biden becoming president.
The court's 6-3 decision found that the government didn't meet the threshold for charging rioters with obstruction, namely the destruction of documents, records, or objects used in the proceedings. Many of the Trump supporters charged with obstruction may now receive lighter sentences.
The Supreme Court is just as fallible as any other institution. There are remedies for the times when it decides incorrectly, but it's a difficult threshold to cross for the many who aren't pleased with the court's decisions.
Even before President Joe Biden announced in a letter on X Sunday that he would step down from his re-election bid in 2024, Democrats were floating the idea of a 'blitz primary' as a way to choose a replacement.
Their proposal aims to answer three main questions: Who will choose candidates? How would they campaign? How will a nominee be chosen?
A good number of Democrats favor making Vice President Kamala Harris the nominee without a primary process, since she was already on the ticket and she fulfills the intersectional preferences the party seems to have.
Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks and venture capitalist Ted Dintersmith disagree, and put out a six-page memo saying her selection without a primary might "set her and the Party up to fail."
They think an open primary would be “the best opportunity in years, if not decades, for the Democratic Party to reclaim its role as the party of the people — and to reinvent itself as the party of the future.”
At the end of the process, they think, “Millions of once-disengaged voters re-engage, grateful for a fresh alternative to a Biden/Trump rematch.”
What Brooks and Dintersmith don't seem to realize is that for Democrats, an open primary is a huge risk compared to coalescing behind one candidate right away, even if that candidate is the generally unpopular Kamala Harris.
Of course, an open primary is the right thing to do unless Biden wants to step down as president now and make Harris an incumbent for the next 100-odd days until the election.
There is some speculation that Biden is incapacitated or in much worse shape than we all thought.
Why else would he post his resignation on X, on a Sunday, and disappear from public view? He has COVID; maybe he took a turn for the worse.
Former Fox News host Todd Starnes has asked these questions and speculated that something fishy is going on with Biden's resignation.
As of Saturday, he was still saying he wasn't stepping down. What changed in 24 hours?
At age 82, anything could happen to take his health from declining to much, much worse. And if that is what happened, the decision to step down might have been far from his own.
With former President Donald Trump surging in the polls ahead of November, thoughts in some corners have turned to making sure he has a Republican House and Senate with which to work should he prevail.
To that end, Michigan Republican businessman Sandy Pensler announced over the weekend that he was dropping out of a hotly contested Senate race in the Great Lakes State and endorsing former Rep. Mike Rogers instead, as The Hill reports.
The Detroit-area business leader make his announcement during Trump's weekend rally in Grand Rapids.
Pensler addressed the crowd, explaining the rationale that caused him to enter the race as well as the reasons for his decision to withdraw at this time.
“My campaign was always about making America better. The best way to do that is to enact President Trump's policies,” Pensler stated.
He then declared, “To do that, we need control of the Senate. A divisive continued primary effort hurts the chances of that, and that's not okay.”
“So tonight, I'm doing the right thing and ceasing my Senate candidacy,” Pensler went on.
The now-former Senate candidate then turned threw his support behind Rogers, echoing Trump's own sentiments on the matter.
“President Trump endorsed Mike Rogers. Tonight, so am I,” said Pensler.
The move spurred gratitude from Rogers, who remains one of the last remaining GOP contenders in the battle to secure the seat of retiring, longtime Democrat lawmaker Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
“Thank you, Sandy. I am honored to have you stand with us and all Republicans to win the state of Michigan,” Rogers said.
The former congressman went on, “Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your leadership. You're going to be an important voice going forward in our party in Michigan.”
Pensler's departure from the primary races leaves former Congressman Justin Amash as the only remaining GOP primary contestant potentially capable of mounting any sort of challenge, as the Associated Press notes, though his prior support for Trump's impeachment may hinder his chances significantly in this election season.
As of now, it appears that the winner of the GOP primary will face off against Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin this fall and given that the Cook Political Report now classifies the battle for the seat as a “toss up,” all eyes will certainly be on this contest as Election Day draws near.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has whistleblower information about possible security failures that led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Just the News reported. Trump sustained a gunshot wound at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
After the shooting, a bloodied Trump stood up and raised his fist to the crowd to show that he was okay. Although everyone was elated to see he had, in fact, survived an attempted assassination, it didn't take long to shift to figuring out how this happened.
Now, Rep. Jim Jordan is trying to determine the failures that left the former president so vulnerable. In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Monday, Jordan shared what the whistleblowers revealed a possible cause.
Jordan said that an informant from the Secret Service shared that the agency new it had "limited resources" heading into the rally. The FBI and Secret Service were preparing for Trump's rally and an appearance by first lady Jill Biden and may have been spread too thin.
Jordan warned that the committee is attempting to determine what went wrong and will call Wray to a hearing next week. Jordan said he expects Wray to prepare formal remarks for the July 24 hearing.
He has "several unanswered questions about the failures that led to the attempted assassination of a president," which hasn't happened in four decades, as Jordan noted. The Ohio Republican also called on the FBI to determine whether it could "conduct a rapid, transparent, and thorough investigation in the wake of its recent scandals."
He went on to share a numbered list of questions for Wray, many of which the public has been asking since the shooting. Among them is the logistical considerations are, including the number of "agents, analysts, and support personnel" who are conducting the FBI's probe.
Jordan also will want to hear details about the measures taken to secure the building and the venue's perimeter on the day of the rally. Another question from the lawmaker demanded to know what happened with the local police who allegedly "encountered the shooter" before he fired on Trump.
Most importantly, Jordan will want Wray to share what the FBI's investigation after the fact turned up. "What does the FBI’s evaluation of the shooter’s phone and digital activity show about his actions and movements in the days and hours leading up to the attempted assassination?" Jordan said in the letter.
Many of these questions from Jordan hint at the larger point that something doesn't add up about this shooting. The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had no criminal history until the day he lined up what could have been the perfect kill shot, CNN reported.
"Even though he didn’t get his primary target, the shooter was successful in a lot of ways because he got closer to doing something no one has done in decades," a federal official told the news outlet. Crooks was characterized as a loner but not particularly political.
Authorities are saying it now looks as if he was more opportunistic, picking Trump as his target because his rally was within an hour of where the young man lived. "It didn’t look to me like he was ready for an assault," former FBI behavioral analyst Kathleen Puckett said.
"It looked to me like he was taking a window that he saw a vulnerability in where he felt that he was unobserved to the extent he could get off some critical shots," Puckett added. She also warned that trying to figure out his motives might be "complicated" and turn up few answers in the end.
Congress needs to hold these people in the intelligence community accountable. The American people deserve to know what happened and why, or mistrust of the government will continue to grow.
A former White House senior official is accused of working as a spy for the South Korean government, the Daily Beast reported. A federal indictment claims Sue Mi Terry was allegedly trading America’s secrets for luxury gifts.
Terry has held positions on the White House National Security Council and as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. The 54-year-old is also married to Max Boot, a Washington Post columnist.
Prosecutors are alleging that she used her influential positions to act as a double agent for the South Korean government. According to USA Today, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Terry “subverted foreign agent registration laws in order to provide South Korean intelligence officers with access, information, and advocacy.”
In exchange, she received lavish gifts. “Terry allegedly sold out her positions and influence to the South Korean government in return for luxury handbags, expensive meals, and thousands of dollars of funding for her public policy program."
According to the 31-page indictment, Terry could spend up to five years in prison for allegedly spilling secrets to the South Korean National Intelligence Service. She became a "valuable source of information" who also gave access to U.S. officials and used her influence to shape policy.
In exchange, she got a taste of the good life. Terry was treated to dinners at the finest restaurants and received designer handbags, including a $3,450 Louis Vuitton purse, a $2,950 Bottega Veneta handbag, and a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana overcoat.
Most troublingly, Terry also received $37,000 to find a public policy program that advocated for the communist nation. Perhaps it's no coincidence that she also testified to Congress on behalf of Korean interests.
On three separate occasions, when she appeared before lawmakers, Terry certified that she was not an agent of a foreign government. Despite the compelling case in the government indictment, Terry's attorney, Lee Wolosky, said she was an American patriot.
“These allegations are unfounded and distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for her independence and years of service to the United States. Dr. Terry...was a harsh critic of the South Korean government during times this indictment alleges that she was acting on its behalf. Once the facts are made clear it will be evident the government made a significant mistake."
How It Worked
Despite her attorney’s protestations, prosecutors allege that Terry used her connections from her time in government to carry out espionage and betrayal. She worked in various positions for the U.S. government between 2001 and 2011.
According to court documents, Terry once slipped a handwritten account to a "handler" at the North Korean intelligence agency that outlined the details of a 2002 meeting with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell regarding strategies for dealing with North Korea.
In April 2023, Terry allegedly hosted a cocktail party funded by the foreign intelligence agency. One of her handlers even attended disguised as a diplomat to make connections with congressional staff on the guest list.
Terry also penned opinion pieces with her columnist husband at the behest of her handlers, Fox News reported. Ironically, Boot had accused former President Donald Trump of being a Russian agent.
It would be a monumental scandal if Terry were, in fact, working as a foreign agent against American interests. It's frightening that she had access to high places, important people, and even the American media while allegedly working for our adversaries.
Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he would consider taking in the Senate should Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) become vice president, the Daily Caller reported in an exclusive. Former President Donald Trump tapped Vance as his vice presidential running mate on Monday.
Vance has been a senator since 2023 but would have to vacate his position if the Trump/Vance ticket is successful in November. At that time, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine would be tasked with appointing "some suitable person having the necessary qualifications for senator" before a special election could be held in November 2026.
If that's the case, Ramaswamy said he'd "strongly consider" stepping into the role. "If asked to serve, I would strongly consider the position," Ramaswamy told the Caller Monday.
The billionaire qualified his answer by saying he would have to clear it with Trump and his vision for the future of the Republican Party. Ramaswamy greatly respects the former president's decision to pick Vance, calling him "one of the best fighters" in Congress.
It seems Ramaswamy is already a popular choice for the job. Debbie Lang, a committeewoman for the Ohio Republican Party, told the Caller that Ramaswamy "would be amazing" in the Senate.
"He’s great. He’s such a supporter of President Trump. He can articulate our conservative values. He’s wonderful," Lang gushed.
"He’s our future. He’s a young man, and he’s brilliant. And so he would be good," she added.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) also believes Ramaswamy is the obvious choice. "I hope Vivek is Governor DeWine's choice. I mean, he'd be a great senator if he wants it," Banks, who is running for Indiana's other Senate seat, said, according to Fox News.
Other names being bandied about include state Sen. Matt Dolan, who opposed Vance in the GOP primary and was DeWine's pick before Vance clinched the nomination. Also under consideration is Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH), who is a logical pick considering his close ties to both DeWine and Trump.
All of this talk about replacing Vance hinges on the supposition that Trump will win the presidential election. Republicans are optimistic after Trump's brush with death over the weekend.
According to Atlanta News First, Trump got a bump in his numbers in the first major poll since he survived an assassination attempt on Saturday. An Emerson College poll released Thursday shows that Trump has overtaken President Joe Biden in each of the seven key battleground states.
Trump leads Biden 46.8% to 41.6% in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona. Of course, pollsters hinted that the findings that cut in favor of Trump may not be what they seem.
"Recent polling shows Biden losing support more significantly than Trump gaining it since the attempted assassination. This raises questions about whether Biden’s decline is still influenced by the debate or if Trump has reached his support ceiling," Emerson College Polling executive director Spencer Kimball said.
There is still plenty of time for anything to happen before November's election. Still, it appears Republicans are moving in a more conservative direction after Trump picked Vance, and others are considering Ramaswamay to fill his seat.
Questions persist about the would-be assassin who shot former President Donald Trump Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The 20-year-old was somehow able to set up his rifle roughly 400 feet from where Trump was speaking and fire off several shots despite the presence of the Secret Service and police.
Officials identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, who had no prior criminal history before Saturday's assassination attempt. Crooks managed to fire off at least six rounds before being taken out by police.
The gunman wounded the former president, killed one man, and wounded two others attending a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The FBI is purportedly conducting an investigation into the incident.
Still, they have yet to explain a motive for the shooting or even how Crooks evaded law enforcement to get close enough to line up his shot before pulling the trigger. Later reports indicating that he was spotted by law enforcement several times before pulling the trigger are fueling speculation.
It Doesn’t Add Up
What’s known about Crooks simply doesn’t add up to the kind of heinous act he committed Saturday. The FBI's investigation into the background of the baby-faced killer revealed that he left few traces of any online activity.
While other people his age document their entire existence on social media, Crooks appeared to have no photographs or posts on the internet. They found some gaming accounts and one for an online coding class, but little more.
The son of licensed professional counselors, Crooks was described by former teachers as shy but not a problematic student. In May, Crooks graduated with an associate degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County.
Crooks had been employed by the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at the time of his death. He passed a background check and performed his job satisfactorily at the nursing home.
A neighbor who knew Crooks as a child described him as well-mannered if also "quiet, maybe a little bit different." None of this seems to explain how he would become a cold-blooded killer who would want to commit such a bold and consequential crime.
Perhaps more puzzling than the “why” of this crime is the “how” when it comes to law enforcement failures. CBS News reported that minutes before pulling the trigger, Crooks’ was spotted and photographed by one of the law enforcement snipers assigned to protect Trump.
The gunman was seen twice more, and despite communication on his whereabouts between local and federal law enforcement, Crooks managed to take his shots without being stopped. It’s unclear why snipers didn’t act faster to neutralize the threat or why the Secret Service didn't usher Trump off the stage sooner.
Even many civilians in the crowd saw Crooks and alerted police, including eyewitness Greg Smith, who told the BBC he saw the gunman "bear crawling" on the building. "The police are down there running around on the ground. We’re like, ‘Hey man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle,’" Smith said.
"The police were like, ‘Huh, what?’ — like they didn’t know what was going on. We’re like, ‘Right here on the roof. We can see him from right here. We can see him. He’s crawling.'" It appears law enforcement only acted after Crooks took his shots.
Nobody knows why Crooks did it or how he was allowed to scale the building, set up his rifle, and take several shots before being neutralized. What's clear is that something went seriously wrong, and Americans deserve answers.
President Joe Biden walked back previous remarks stating that he should put former President Donald Trump in the "bullseye," Breitbart reported. Biden wants to distance himself from inflammatory remarks now that there was an assassination attempt on Trump.
The assassination attempt against Trump Saturday turned the political world upside down. After years of harsh rhetoric that included strong language against Trump, Democrats attempted to back peddle, including Biden.
NBC Nightly News host Lester Holt pressed Biden Monday on his use of such strong rhetoric. Biden ultimately admitted that it "was a mistake" to use the metaphoric language and said he instead "meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing, focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate."
Biden usually gets a pass from the media, but Holt was not about to let Biden off the hook as many are linking Biden's rhetoric to the shooting. "Well, let’s talk about the conversation this has started, and it’s really about language, what we say out loud, and the consequences of those," Holt began.
"You called your opponent an existential threat on a call a week ago, you said it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye. There’s some dispute about the context. But I think you appreciate –," Holt said before Biden cut him off.
"I didn’t say crosshairs. I was talking about focus on — look, the truth of the matter was, what I guess I was talking about at the time was, there was very little focus on Trump’s agenda," Biden claimed.
"Yeah, the term was bullseye," Holt shot back. Biden continued, "It was a mistake to use the word — I didn’t say crosshairs. I meant bullseye," the president said. "I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing, focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate," Biden said.
"Focus — there’s a whole range of things that— look, I’m not the guy that said I want to be a dictator on day one. I’m not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election," Biden claimed. "I’m not the guy who said that I wasn’t going to accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can’t only love your country when you win. And so, the focus was on what he’s saying."
As reported in Politico, Biden decried that political discourse has become "very heated" and that it's time to "cool it down" in the immediate aftermath of the attempt on Trump's life that killed a bystander and wounded two others. However, he ignored his own history of hate.
One of the most notorious came in a screed in September 2022 in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, lit up in blood red. "Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic," Biden said at the time.
"MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country," he continued.
"They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th — brutally attacking law enforcement — not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots. And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections," the president claimed.
The left has been making hysterical predictions about Trump's authoritarian bent since before he was elected in 2016. After years of convincing leftists that they should be afraid of him and his supporters, they now want downplay the very incendiary rhetoric that got us here.