"Make America Great Again" - Trump likes to use simple slogans. In a speech on US television, US President Biden criticized that the "Maga Republicans", i.e. his supporters, would like to lead the country into the past. He hopes to be able to turn things around for the Democrats in the primaries.
US President Joe Biden has branded his predecessor Donald Trump and his political allies as a threat to US democracy. "Donald Trump and the Maga Republicans embody an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic," Biden said in a live televised speech in the metropolitan city of Philadelphia. Maga is the abbreviation of Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" and is used as a term for the ex-president's movement and political orientation.
"Equality and democracy are under attack," Biden said in front of the historic Independence Hall building, where the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were passed. "Maga Republicans don't respect the constitution. They don't believe in the rule of law. They don't recognize the will of the people. They refuse to recognize the results of a free election."
The president also accused Trump and his camp of inciting political violence a few months before the November midterm elections. "Maga Republicans" would feed on "anger" and "chaos". "There is no place for political violence in America. Period. None. Never."
In his prime-time speech, Biden called on US citizens to stand up for US democracy. "For a long time we have assured ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed. It is not. We must defend it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Each and every one of us." Regardless of their "ideology", people must unite "behind the goal of defending our democracy".
Biden is currently making several visits to his home state of Pennsylvania in the east of the country, which is likely to be one of the hardest fought states in the midterm elections. The president wants to use it to mobilize voters, because his Democratic Party could lose its majorities in both chambers of Congress to the Republicans in the fall.
Recently, the hopes of the Democrats have increased that they can still avert the long-predicted election debacle. Polls show a better picture for the Democrats than a few months ago. Among other things, the party is betting that candidates loyal to Trump could go down less well with voters than the ex-president and his camp expected.
Biden said in his speech in Philadelphia that Maga Republicans want to take the country back in time - to a time when there was "no right to an abortion, no right to privacy, no right to contraceptives, no right to marry whoever you are loves".
At the same time, he emphasized that "not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans" are "Maga Republicans". "Not every Republican subscribes to their extreme ideology. But there is no doubt that the Republican Party today is dominated, led and intimidated by Donald Trump and the Maga Republicans. And that is a threat to this country."
