Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) said President Joe Biden’s “Soul of the Nation” speech on Thursday was a “slap in the face” to Republicans across the country.”
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Sunday, McCaul slammed Biden for demonizing tens of millions of Americans who voted for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
“If this was a speech to unify the American people it had just the opposite effect,” McCaul said. “It basically condemned all Republicans who supported Donald Trump in the last election, that’s over 70 million people, and saying that Republicans are a ‘threat to democracy’ is really a slap in the face.”
McCaul noted that the speech was not carried live by any of the major broadcast networks because it was so overtly political.
“This was not a presidential address,” he said. “It was a campaign speech before the midterm elections and that’s how I see it.”
Republicans blasted Biden’s address for its dark optics and grim content. In the speech, which was centered on the “Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation,” Biden railed against Trump and “MAGA Republicans,” claiming they “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
“There is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country,” Biden said.
McCaul criticized the heightened rhetoric on both sides of the aisle and said Biden should have tried to unify the country.
“I don’t think people in mainstream America particularly like the divisive rhetoric,” he said.
McCaul said Biden should have aspired to be more like Abraham Lincoln, who focused on unifying the country during the Civil War.
“I wish the president could have been more like Abraham Lincoln, who did not condemn the Democrats in the South in that time,” McCaul said. “He actually brought them into the tent and I think that would be the mission I would advise for the president, I think he failed to do that in this speech that he gave.”
Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro blasted Biden’s speech as “the most demagogic, outrageous, and divisive speech I have ever seen from an American president.” He also critiqued the aesthetics, “[t]he red-and-black background against the front-lit visage of a grim old man screaming at Americans, fists clenched.”
Source: Dailywire
