President Joe Biden on Thursday gave probably the most forceful and assertive speech of his long political life. Gone was the pleading, folksy, queasy tone that usually permeates his public remarks. Instead, he went hard on the attack against Donald Trump, the person who most deserved to be called out for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. This is the Joe Biden Americans voted for. If Biden can maintain this level of energy, passion and focus in his public remarks, he may well salvage his presidency and stop seeding the turf for yet another Trump presidential bid.
Biden laid out in explicit terms exactly why Trump bears full responsibility for the Capitol siege — and he was insistent in not mincing words, calling it what it was: an “insurrection.” Biden also raised the starkest of warnings, saying that there’s “a dagger at the throat of America” and adding: “We are in a battle for the soul of America.”
This was not hyperbole. The ongoing efforts by Trump and GOP congressional leaders to avoid talking about the insurrection while presenting tortured rationalizations for Trump’s support of it demand daily reminders that, no, all is not well. This nation’s democracy hangs by a thread because the GOP leadership refuses to prioritize defense of that democracy over their selfish partisan interests.
