(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden told Democratic donors that the philosophy espoused by supporters of Donald Trump was “like semi-fascism” during a fundraiser Thursday night in suburban Maryland.
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“It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins,” the former president’s wing of the Republican party, Biden said. “I’m going to say something — it’s like semi-fascism.”
Biden went on to say that Americans were increasingly concerned about whether democracy could be sustained following the attempted insurrection by the former president’s supporters at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Did you ever think two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, we’ll be talking about sustaining democracy in the United States of America?” Biden said.
The criticism was some of Biden’s harshest of the midterm campaign cycle, as Democrats fight to retain their slim majorities on Capitol Hill. Biden has increasingly sought to frame the upcoming elections as a referendum on Republican loyalty to Trump in recent weeks, using an abbreviation of the former president’s Make America Great Again slogan as a pejorative.
Trump rode the mantra to his surprising 2016 White House win, but its acronym has persisted as a way to describe the populist, far-right movement that he ignited.
Republicans have responded to by seizing on the “Ultra MAGA” criticism in fundraising appeals, selling merchandise emblazoned with the phrase.
A majority of Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Trump after Jan. 6 are either retiring or lost primary elections ahead of November’s midterms.
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