President launches latest attack on ‘extreme right’ in Wisconsin Labor Day speech
- President Joe Biden made the first of two speeches planned for Labor Day
- Early on during the address he appeared to walk back his August remark comparing Trump supporters’ beliefs to ‘semi-fascism’
- ‘Not every Republican is a MAGA Republican. Not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology,’ the president said
- But he later said as a heckler was being escorted out, ‘the MAGA Republicans – that guy out that door- are destroying democracy’
- Wisconsin’s Democratic Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, who is running for Senate in November, was notably absent from Biden’s speech
- Barnes’ campaign told DailyMail.com that he was participating in ‘events across the state’ to mark Labor Day Monday, including a Milwaukee parade
A heckler was just escorted out by secret service after repeatedly shouting, interrupting President Biden at Laborefest pic.twitter.com/vZd53qvspj
— The Jason Smith (@thejsonsmith) September 5, 2022
Joe Biden rolled out a new nickname for MAGA Republicans on Labor Day during a lively speech where he also walked back comments suggesting Donald Trump‘s supporters believe in ‘semi-fascism.’
During his speech in Wisconsin on Monday, the president denounced the former president’s followers as ‘Trumpies’ and claimed politicians on the ‘extreme right’ of the GOP are ‘coming for your social security’ and destroying worker pensions.
At one point Biden was interrupted by a heckler – though he told Secret Service to ‘let him go.’
‘Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot,’ the president said to scattered laughter.
And despite clarifying early on that ‘not every Republican is a MAGA Republican,’ he later painted the critic and his ilk as working to ‘destroy democracy.’
‘The biggest contrast from what MAGA Republicans, the extreme right…the Trumpies…is these MAGA Republicans in Congress are coming for your Social Security as well,’ Biden said.
The 79-year-old leader has ratcheted up his rhetoric against the former president and his allies in recent days, ever since making a fiery debut on the midterm campaign trail in Bethesda, Maryland late last month.
It was at a private event with donors there that the president compared MAGA Republican beliefs to semi-fascism, earning instant backlash from all factions on the right.
Walking those comments back on Monday, he said: ‘I want to be very clear up front. Not every Republican is a MAGA Republican. Not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology. I know, because I’ve been able to work with mainstream Republicans my whole career.’
‘But the extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress have chosen to go backwards – full of anger, violence, hate and division,’ the president said. ‘But together, we can and must choose a different path: forward.’
Later, however, Biden turned up the heat again as the heckler who interrupted his speech was being pulled out by security.
‘Democrats, Republicans and mainstream – Republicans and independents, we have to be stronger and more determined and more committed to saving American democracy,’ the president implored above the commotion.
‘And the MAGA Republicans – that guy out that door- are destroying democracy. Because democracy is at stake.’
