Biden blasted for 'angry, rancid' Philadelphia speech demeaning half of America
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, columnists Charlie Hurt and Deroy Murdock sound off on 'Hannity.'
President Biden used the pretext of an official presidential address to deliver an "angry and rancid" campaign-style speech indicting the 73 million people who voted for Donald Trump as enemies of American democracy, Washington Times columnist Charlie Hurt told Fox News on Thursday.
Biden declared – with U.S. Marines stationed behind him against a dark red-backlit Independence Hall – that American citizens who support Trump "do not respect the Constitution" and may support violence to achieve political ends.
Hurt said he had never seen a president take aim at about half the American people in what was billed as a presidential address, and therefore the official position of the executive branch of the United States government.
"I've never seen such an angry, rancid speech in which a president attacks the voters that he supposedly works for," he said.
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U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks in front of Independence Hall. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
"It's also very senseless because at another point in the speech, he starts talking about how this is not normal."
During the speech, Biden appeared to be heckled from a distance by individuals who shouted "Let's Go Brandon" – as well as the explicit phrase it is a euphemism for.
Biden interrupted his remarks at one point to declare such people "have the right to be outrageous."
He billed his enemies "MAGA Republicans" – which is an acronym for "Make America Great Again."
The president was joined by a slew of local officials including Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney; Reps. Brendan Boyle, Mary Gay Scanlon, and Madeleine Dean, all D-Pa. – and at least two officials from his home state in Rep. Lisa Blunt-Rochester, D-Del, and Wilmington Mayor Michael Purzycki, according to a guest list.
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FILE - In this Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Missing from the rope-line list were the two Democrats running for statewide office in November – Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, facing Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz for Senate, and Commonwealth Attorney General Joshua Shapiro, facing retired U.S. Army Col. Doug Mastriano for governor.
In regard to the election, Hurt said Biden appears to believe attacking his critics so virulently ahead of November is the best way to bring about a "benefit" for him, adding the president may indeed be hoping his rhetoric causes Republican activists to do something drastic or violent.
"I think he is doing everything he can to gin up something so that people do get out of hand. And that's a terrifying thing to contemplate."
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U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks (Reuters)
Hurt said that, to the contrary, Biden is likely to "get punished for gas prices, inflation and open border and crime – Those are the issues that people care about."
Host Tammy Bruce added that it is not Biden's first time characterizing his critics as extremists, but that it may be his most stark and divisive outing.
She pointed to how in January, Biden compared supporters of election security laws to the late segregationist Democratic Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
Biden has used stark language to contrast political opponents in other regards, including a widely-circulated clip from a Danville, Va., stump speech in 2012, where he declared then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's fiscal policy platform would place the largely-Black audience "back in chains."
Prior to the speech, the White House maintained it would not be a political campaign address, but as other observers noted urging people to vote for a certain party or candidate, as Biden did, is an inherently political statement.