Comment Throughout his presidency, Joe Biden has been cautious with his rhetoric, often avoiding any deep discussion about his predecessor — whom he didn’t even call by name at first, referring to him as “former guy” — and generally eschewing the kinds of broad denunciations of the Republican Party that other Democrats have happily engaged in. But this Joe Biden has faded. On Thursday night, he used newly stepped-up rhetoric in ways that the White House and Biden’s political advisers signal will be part of a no-holds-barred strategy for the midterm elections. The president accused the GOP of “semi-fascism” and said he does not respect and cannot work with “MAGA Republicans” who he said “embrace political violence.” He toughened his claim that democracy was under threat and said the country could face the kind of test that comes every few generations, “one of those moments that change everything.” From a high school auditorium in Rockville, Md., Biden also mocked Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) for mocking a local project he had voted against. White House aides spent the late afternoon using the official Twitter account — usually reserved for policy charts, press releases and newsletters — to go on the attack. They went viral naming Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz who had criticized student loan forgiveness while benefiting from their own business loan forgiveness. Tweets had more engagements and retweets than almost anyone else in the Biden White House or previous ones. It was all a clear sign that Biden and Democrats won’t just rely on touting his legislation and other accomplishments, as some Democrats feared he would, but will directly accuse Republicans of fascism and violence in an effort to raise the stakes. medium term for the survival of democracy itself. “It’s not an exaggeration,” Biden said. “Now you must vote to literally save democracy again.” For a constellation of Democrats who have urged Biden to use the full powers of the presidential bully pulpit, it was a welcome change, and one that Biden advisers said voters will see more of. “There are two Joe Bidens: Joe Biden governs and Joe Biden campaigns,” said Celinda Lake, a longtime Democratic pollster who worked on the 2020 presidential campaign. “One of the things he realizes is that to be effective in governance, you have to show some strength and make the choice for the voters.” He said that in many focus groups, even those who voted for Biden had questioned whether he had the fortitude to advance the priorities they cared about. “They’ve thought they didn’t see the strong fighter, the person they elected, and attributed it to age and weakness,” he said. “I hope we can predict more than that. People craved it.” The change also comes at a time when former President Donald Trump is facing increasing scrutiny in a way that often creates a strange divide in American politics. As the former president has faced investigations into his businesses, an FBI search of his home and congressional hearings about his actions, Biden has focused elsewhere. He has often received far less attention, but his allies hope that shows he is trying to implement policies that affect large swathes of the country, even as Trump garners cable news attention. As an affidavit was released Friday revealing that 184 classified files were found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., in January, for example, the Biden White House brought in Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Financial Council, in the press briefing room to explain details about the student debt relief plan. But it was also clear that Biden’s more combative approach was not an aberration. As he boarded Marine One outside the White House, reporters asked about claims that Trump had a standing order that any documents he removed from the White House be automatically declassified. Biden took on a sarcastic voice as he impersonated Trump. “I have declassified everything in the world. I am president. I can do it all!’ he said. “Come!” Biden has previously been willing to criticize Republicans, and his 2020 campaign was largely about defeating Trump, who he argued was a unique threat to American values. But as president, he often avoided confronting his GOP rivals directly or personally. That changed Thursday, when Biden differentiated between Republicans he considered sane and those he didn’t. “I respect conservative Republicans,” he said. “I have no respect for these MAGA Republicans.” Republicans criticized Biden for some of his rhetoric, with the Republican National Committee calling it “despicable” and others saying it was out of line. Pointing to the large number of Americans who voted for Trump, some suggested that Biden’s dismissal of Republican philosophy as “like semi-fascism” was similar to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 dismissal of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables ». But it was clear that Biden’s comments — some of which were delivered at a fundraiser where reporters were present but television cameras were not on — were delivered properly. The White House defended the comments on Friday, including the line that much of the Republican Party has descended into “semi-fascism.” “You look at the definition of fascism and you think about what they’re doing when they attack our democracy, what they’re doing and taking away our freedoms, they want to take away our rights, our voting rights — I mean, that’s what it is,” the White House spokeswoman said. Karin Jean-Pierre. “It’s very clear.” Biden himself, asked Friday what he meant by “semi-fascism,” smiled widely. “You know what I mean,” he said. Biden advisers saw Thursday night’s events — which included a fundraiser that brought in $1 million and a rally that drew 4,000 people, about double what they had planned — as the start of the midterm campaign. The president plans to visit Wilkes-Barre, Pa., next Tuesday to talk about gun crime, and aides say he plans to travel a few times a week. But while his approval ratings have risen recently, many candidates in the nation’s most competitive races have avoided having Biden come to their states and districts. But they hope it can raise money and help frame the national conversation. That means more repudiation of Republicans, as well as touting his own accomplishments. “You’re going to see a lot more of the same, because it’s based on what he’s done, his vision and what he’s been fighting for,” said a Biden adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview the strategy. Biden has long had a reputation as a bipartisan negotiator and has boasted of working with former Republican stalwarts, even those damned by other Democrats, from Jesse Helms to Strom Thurmond. Many Democrats running against him in 2020 questioned his ability to directly take on a younger, more scorched-earth version of the Republican Party. But throughout his career, Biden has relished the partisan warfare that comes every two years. It was one reason President Barack Obama chose him as his vice president. “Policy debates in the Senate are one thing, but policy debates become policy debates in November every two years, and that’s his time to shine,” said Scott Mulhauser, a longtime Democratic adviser who served as deputy leader of Biden’s staff during the 2012 Obama-Maiden Campaign. “There’s no one who likes to fly and land a lawnmower more than he does for a cause he believes in.” And while Biden may occasionally insult Republicans, there are other times when he goes on the offensive. “We’ve pivoted,” Mulhauser said, “from the era of the legislative process to the era of politics and elections.” Biden continues to support his bipartisan legislation — including infrastructure spending, a law to aid veterans exposed to toxic burns and an effort to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing — but his efforts to take on Republicans in the current Congress have largely fade away The president once predicted there would be a “showdown” and an “altar call” among Republicans when Trump left the stage, leaving them open to bipartisanship again. But on Thursday, he declared: “This is not your father’s Republican Party. This is a different deal.” And Trump hasn’t gone anywhere. “There’s been this big civil war in the Republican Party that’s been going on, and it seems clear that Trump won that civil war,” said Ben LaBolt, a strategist who worked in the Obama administration and has advised the Biden team. He added, “We’re getting closer to Election Day, this opposition is showing up and the White House is saying, ‘We’re not going to pretend this is on the level anymore.’ “ Michael Scherer contributed to this report.
