On Sunday, the moderate Republican governor of New Hampshire demanded that President Joe Biden retract his description of the MAGA movement as “semi-fascism.”
Governor Chris Sununu, who hasn’t been afraid to criticise Donald Trump personally, called Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks at a Maryland fundraiser on Thursday slamming his opponent’s fans “horribly offensive.”
It’s just – it’s horribly inappropriate,’ Sununu said on CNN’s State of the Union. “I mean, the fact that the president would go out and just insult half of America, because, effectively, half of America votes Republican, half of America ultimately votes Democrat…but effectively call half of America semi-fascist, because he’s trying to stir up controversy, he’s trying to stir up this anti-Republican sentiment right before the election, it’s just
“It’s offensive.” And it ought to be offensive to individuals. He should also say sorry.
According to reports, Biden said this at a private gathering with donors before giving a speech on behalf of the Democratic National Committee in Bethesda.
According to several sources, the president said that “what we’re witnessing today is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA mindset.”
Not just Trump, either. The whole ideology behind it is similar to semi-fascism, I’m going to say that.
Asserting that the remark was beneath Biden’s position, Sununu told CNN: “That isn’t leadership.”
When presenter Dana Bash pressed the governor to admit the prevalence of extremism within the GOP, he dodged the question, adamant that it was a responsibility shared by all US residents.
The centrist Republican linked Biden’s remarks to Republicans equating Democrats with Communism, which he claimed was also unfair.
Look, fascism and white supremacy are here in America in many forms. Let’s as Americans own that. There is no question, Sununu said.
And we may assert that every single Democrat is a communist, an ultra-socialist communist who only seeks to undermine our free market economy. Democrats also fall outside of that category.
He said that Biden had “polarised the nation” and had broken his 2020 campaign pledge to bring the country together.
And to label half of America as fascists after that? Let’s go. He needs to apologise. Sununu said, “That’s not proper.”
It’s unusually harsh criticism coming from a Republican who has sometimes challenged Trump, despite the former president’s dominant position in the party.
At the Gridiron Dinner in Washington, DC earlier this year, Sununu made news by calling Trump “f***ing insane,” to the amusement of the audience of Beltway elites.
He said that Trump’s followers are pushing the nation backward (pictured: Trump supporters at a MAGA rally in Wisconsin earlier this month)
In the days that followed, he pulled back the attack, claiming it was a “joke” and that he is not “anti-Trump.”
But on Thursday, Biden didn’t only criticise pro-Trump Republicans in private.
“Americans will have to make a decision.” You have to decide. Will we be a nation that advances or regresses? Will we create the future or fixate on the past? At a DNC rally in Bethesda, Maryland, the president posed this question to the crowd.
“Trump and the radical MAGA Republicans have chosen to go backwards, full of fury, violence, hatred, and division,” the statement reads.
He praised Democratic achievements over the last 18 months, especially after assuming government amid one of the worst COVID-19 pandemics.
Folks, it required a lot of hard effort and it simply didn’t happen. It required a strategy that we adhered to, despite constant criticism from the most powerful special interests in the nation, Biden added.
And the MAGA Republicans’ “burn it all down” politics as a whole continue to be a drumbeat,