Daily messaging from the White House and President Joe Biden has taken a hyperbolic and inflammatory turn recently. I thought the plan was for Biden to stop vacationing long enough to do some half-hearted midterm tour of the states, touting the Administration’s alleged accomplishments. That was the plan laid out in a “Building a Better America Tour” released in a White House memo just ten days ago in mid-August. But, all of that policy messaging has taken a detour, too.
I admit that the White House has not come off script. It was right there the whole time. The memo says,
Congressional Republicans sided with the special interests — pushing an extreme MAGA agenda that costs families. The Building a Better America campaign will use all of the tools of the White House to bring these messages to the American people.
Not only were they planning to pull the lever on anti-MAGA rhetoric for weeks, they also planned to use everything at their disposal to get these divisive messages into American homes. Surely, they will as Biden plans a Thursday prime time address.
It’s important to note that none of this is coming off-the-cuff, rather, it’s quite an inorganic strategy based on six months of research and polling. RollCall referenced the reports back in May writing,
…the Biden catchphrase was the product of six full months of research by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Plus, of course, private polling by Hart Research and the Global Strategy Group.
Now, the WH Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, reads the anti-MAGA talking points from her notes, every day. Here’s the recap of the escalation of the purposefully maligning White House “MAGA” strategy in reverse-chronological order.
Wednesday:
“The President thinks there is an extremist threat to our democracy… the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party… this is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights.”
Karine Jean-Pierre says that people who voted for Donald Trump are "a threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights." pic.twitter.com/8e2fXP2sD7
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) August 31, 2022
Monday:
“You know, the President has been really clear that congressional Republicans — that extreme MAGA agenda that you heard him talk about last week is a threat to the rule of law. ”
“So, we have — you know, we have seen MAGA Republicans attack our democracy. We have seen MAGA Republicans take away our rights, make threats of violence, including this weekend, and that is what the President was referring to when you all asked me last week about the semi-fascism comment.”
“Look, this is something that we are acutely aware of, that certainly that we are monitoring. Look, a lot of this is — you know, when we talk about that MAGA agenda, the MAGA extreme Republicans, this is it. This is congressional Republicans who are touting this MAGA agenda, including banning abortion in cases of rape, incest, and the health of the mother. And so this is something that the President certainly is going to call out.”
WH Press Sec says that the "extreme MAGA agenda is a threat to the rule of law." pic.twitter.com/F8K9g2ghE2
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 29, 2022
Friday:
Following the first doses of Biden’s anti-MAGA/”semi-fascist” rhetoric at the Maryland rally, WH Press Secretary fielded a question from the press pool asking,
“Is this something we’re going to hear more of — that phrase? Is it something the President’s going to kind of embrace? Or is there any sense that it was, you know, a little impromptu and it’s going to turn into a kind of “basket of deplorables” thing that he regrets and then tries to be quiet about?”
Undoubtedly, the answer is yes. Yes, we are going to hear more of that phrase. Yes, the President is going to fully embrace it. And yes, this will be in the Press Secretary’s notes into the foreseeable future.
Jean Pierre responds:
“Look, what the President said last night was that when it comes to MAGA Republicans, when it comes to the extreme, ultra wing of Republicans, they are attacking democracy. Right? They are attacking — taking away rights and freedoms. They are using threat of — threats of violence. They are taking away voting rights. And he called it what it is.”
Thursday:
After President Biden held a rally in Maryland, WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made an appearance on CNN where Don Lemon asked her about the president’s “semi-fascist” remarks about Republicans. Jean-Pierre dodged the question for a bit before finally answering,
“What we are seeing from Republicans and what we have seen from Republicans these past several years is that they are attacking our democracy, they are taking away our freedom, and they are trying to put on the chopping blocks Medicare and Social Security. That’s what we are seeing and it’s being done -if you look at the Republican Party- it’s being done by this element, this MAGA element of the Republican Party.”
Karine Jean-Pierre is struggling to answer Don Lemon's question about what Joe Biden meant by Republicans being "semi-fascists."
She is so terrible at her job. If you can't even handle Don Lemon as a Democrat flack, you are beyond incompetent. pic.twitter.com/vUmI3h9IdX
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) August 26, 2022
As you can see, the daily dose of everyone-hates-Republicans courtesy of the White House is being upped to toxic levels; even dog-whistling attacks on the GOP.
My RedState colleague Nick Arma reported Monday that POTUS remarks of MAGA being “semi-fascist” have already resulted in an attack on a GOP office in Seminole County. As with cases of attacks on churches that the religious community has faced since SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, the Biden Admin is silent in condemning the politically motivated violence against conservatives.
Biden’s White House is looking to ride the wave of irrationality. Americans can expect the rhetoric to become more emboldened and aggressive toward 70 million Donald Trump voters, who sought to Make America Great Again through America First economic policies, peace through strength, diplomacy, and sovereignty. Democrats neither get to define the GOP as “MAGA” vs “Mainstream” nor define what policies constituted the collective populism to restore America to Greatness.
Senseless depictions of ordinary Americans will do little to detract from the issues at the heart of the nation with the promise of a recession on the horizon. Democrats can’t doom and gloom for votes again, the dark cold winter Biden promised us in 2020 isn’t a respiratory virus this year, but atrophy of the American Dream voters aren’t soon to forget.
Cheers, maligned friends and deplorables! The Dems are cycling their midterm plans and strategies while trying personas on for size. Soon we get to watch the last brain cells of POTUS go all out dance-dance-revolution as he spouts off a pre-written hate speech, and messes it up anyway. Enjoy the watch party. Invite a pal. Do not bother to emotionally engage with words willfully meant to upset and divide, by the researcher’s design. The election isn’t a referendum on Republicans, lest you forget: It’s the economy, stupid.
