president of the united states call his predecessor a threat to this country. that s exactly what we heard tonight from president joe biden about donald trump and trumpism in his renewed battle for the soul of america campaign, this time ahead of the midterms. what is happening today in america, he says, is not normal. donald trump and the maga republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. they promote authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country. they look at the mob that stormed the united states capitol on january 6th, brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger at the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots. and they see their maga failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2
every generation has opened the door of opportunity wider. what we have not heard a lot of him since he became president, the speech he s talking about lowering prescription drug prices and rebuilding the country. i think that is a crucial, crucial message. i would bet for the next 60-some days we re going to hear quite a bit more of that than the straight, full-on, double-barrelled, anti-trump stuff. kevin mccarthy delivered this pre-buttal from west ping ston, pennsylvania. let s listen to a little bit of that. when the president speaks tonight at independence hall, the first lines out of his mouth should be to apologize for slandering tens of millions of americans as fascists. what joe biden doesn t understand is that the soul of america is in the tens of millions of hard-working people, of loving families, of
you re mad at me, if you feel disappointed, you feel let down by me or democrats, things aren t going as well as you thought or we promised r, these are the stakes. so, it s not about me. it s not about the party. it s about america. and this is why folks like me, you know, center-right folks, voted for him because it was time to make america good again. and those are the things he talked about. it was important for him to say these things, to call lies lies, to call out violence, to talk about things like the constitution and law and order. he had to say these things. but this wasn t a conversion speech. he wasn t trying to get, you know, republicans to leave the flock. this was to remind moderates, independents, and anyone else who might not come out in november, this is why you must. yeah. well, and there was hope in it again, right? and that s something that i would, you know, like to say i think is new for democrats in the last month is a bunch of hope that we are feeling.
fink nower and alex burns and se cup. abby, let me start with you. this was a fiery speech, as i said. the white house said this was not about donald trump, but he called him out by name and it was the first applause line of the speech. look, that speech was joe biden. that speech was exactly why president biden ran for president in the first place. i still remember talking to him before he announced, and it was because he was worried about our democracy. he was worried about where our country was headed. and now that he is president and we ve seen how trump has continued to divide folks, he has continued to have the backs of insurrectionists who went after our democracy, after my friends in the capitol that day, and he is doubling down, making sure that the country knows that president biden is there defending it, will do whatever he can to keep fighting for them, keep fighting for this country, democracy, and again, who he is.
and they see their maga failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections. on the same day biden delivered this fiery prime-time speech, trump heaped more praise on those involved in the violent attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election on january 6th. the contrast between the two could not be more stark. trump says that he s actually giving money to some of the capitol riot defendants and would pardon them if he could. i met with and financially supporting people that are incredible, and they were in my office two days ago. it s very much on my mind. it s a disgrace what they ve done to them. i will look very, very favorably about full pardons if i decide to run and if i win, i will be looking very, very strongly about pardons. joining me now, former democratic congresswoman abby