Whoever wrote President Joe Biden’s Thursday Independence Hall speech certainly wanted to get at least two points across: MAGA Republicans are election deniers and, therefore, are a threat to democracy.
During his address, he mentioned MAGA — former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan Make America Great Again — 13 times and brought up elections and/or election deniers 11 times.
Some of Biden’s claims were outrageous and insulting. Here are some examples.
“MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution,” he said. “They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.”
“MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law, they do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election…” pic.twitter.com/ChQDWX0GSr
Full Biden speech on democracy here: https://t.co/QmFT6ZV05q
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) September 2, 2022
“We’re a big, complicated country. But democracy endures only if we, the people, respect the guardrails of the republic. Only if we, the people, accept the results of free and fair election,” Biden added.
The president went on-and-on with the topic.
Do you think Biden’s speech hurt him politically?
“I will not stand by and watch elections in this country stolen by people who simply refuse to accept that they lost,” he said.
Biden followed up all that hot rhetoric with a Sunday tweet writing, “America respects free and fair elections. We honor the will of the people. We do not deny it.”
The Republican National Committee could not abide the sanctimonious lecturing any longer and responded with a 10-minute long video compilation of Democrats, including Biden himself, denying or casting doubt on the election outcomes in 2016, 2004 and 2000.
Here is ten straight minutes of Democrats denying election results.pic.twitter.com/bJRbzEcIO2
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 4, 2022
Of course the biggest offender of all was 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who appears multiple times in the video saying Trump is not the legitimate president.
“You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you,” she said in 2019.
Now-Vice President Kamala Harris is also seen in an interview during the 2020 election cycle agreeing with the claims that the 2016 election was stolen.
Former President Jimmy Carter said in 2016 that Trump “lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered.”
The late Rep. John Lewis refused to attend Trump’s and George W. Bush’s inaugurations in 2016 and 2000, respectively, because he said they weren’t the rightful winners.
The current White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, tweeted in December 2016 following Trump’s win, “Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election …..welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump.”
Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election …..welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump https://t.co/NI7vqPV6cu
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre) December 18, 2016
The tweet came in response to MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin posting, “So if a foreign nation takes something of ours, we should let them keep it?” In other words, Russia stole the election.
The RNC video also contains clips of Reps. Alcee Hastings, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee and others rising in opposition to the counting of Florida’s electoral votes in 2000, arguing Democratic nominee Al Gore had won the state.
Bush’s win in Florida, later confirmed by a media-sponsored recount, was decisive in him carrying the election.
In January 2005, shortly after being sworn into the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama said on the Senate floor, “What I observed as a voter, as a citizen of Illinois four years ago were troubling evidence of the fact that not every vote was being counted” in the 2000 election.
That same month, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rose in support of the many Democrats rising to object to the Electoral College votes of Ohio being counted in the 2004 race between George W. Bush and John Kerry. The outcome in Ohio was decisive in 2004.
“Mr. Speaker, today we are witnessing democracy at work,” Pelosi said. “This debate is fundamental to our democracy.”
Did you catch that?
The very things Biden chastised MAGA Republicans for doing in terms of House members objecting to Electoral College votes being counted, Pelosi touted as “democracy at work.”
To her credit, the minority leader did say she accepted Bush as the winner, but added, “This is their only opportunity to have this debate, while the country is listening and it is appropriate to do so.”
Pelosi stated, “Constantly shifting vote tallies in Ohio and malfunctioning electronic machines, which may not have paper receipts, have led to additional loss of confidence by the public.”
Sounds like the kinds of things Republicans lawmakers had concerns about in 2020.
It’s also worth noting that Pelosi was an apparent election denier, tweeting regarding the 2016 race: “Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to #ProtectOurDemocracy & #FollowTheFacts.”
Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to #ProtectOurDemocracy & #FollowTheFacts.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 16, 2017
So enough of the sanctimony and demagoguery by Biden and the Democrats about respecting election results.
If questioning the results is a threat to democracy, Democrats have been doing it for years.
