President Joe Biden blasted Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson on Johnson’s home turf, accusing him and other Republicans of trying to strip Americans of their Social Security and other government benefits.
“These MAGA Republicans in Congress are coming for your Social Security,” Biden said Monday at a rally in Milwaukee, referencing former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Biden several times singled out Johnson — who polls indicate is trailing Democrat Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor, in his bid for a third term in November — citing also his opposition to a Democratic plan aimed at lowering prescription drug prices.
It was the first of two Labor Day speeches in front of union workers. Later Monday, Biden is scheduled to visit a union hall in Pittsburgh, his third trip to Pennsylvania in a week.
With two months to go before voters head to the polls, Biden has been ramping up his efforts to aid fellow Democrats in midterm contests that will determine whether Democrats retain their slim House and Senate majorities.
He’s repeatedly sought to tie Johnson and other Republican candidates to Trump and paint them holding extreme positions that would hurt middle-class Americans.
Biden cited Johnson’s opposition to Democrats’ $437 billion health, climate and tax legislation, which he signed into law last month. That measure included a provision allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time.
Biden said Johnson “opposed lowering drug costs because it would result in punishing the pharmaceutical industries” and assailed him for voting against capping the cost of insulin.
Johnson preempted the attacks in a Sunday tweet, saying, “Democrats cannot defend their record so they’ve resorted to baseless smears and personal attacks. Their latest? I want to end social security. I want to save social security and protect the long-term success of this vital program.”
Biden also criticized Johnson for calling the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “by and large, a peaceful protest.”
Republicans in Congress “have chosen to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division,” Biden said, adding, “But together we can and we must choose a different path forward.”
Barnes declined to appear with the president Monday, adding to a pattern established by some other Democrats in competitive races.
Johnson has sought to tie Barnes to Biden, whose approval rating in the state is several points lower than that of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Barnes “wants to run basically a Joe Biden campaign. If he could get away with it he’d hide in his basement,” Johnson said last weekend.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called Barnes a “soft-on-crime radical who supports higher taxes and is a cheerleader for Biden’s disastrous agenda.”
“Biden knows Barnes will march in lockstep with him if elected,” McDaniel said in a Monday statement, adding, “Wisconsin voters won’t let that happen.”
At one point, Biden was briefly interrupted by a protester. The president urged the crowd not to shout down the heckler, saying, “Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”
