Donald Trump has hit back at Joe Biden's “soul of the nation” address, in which the US president slammed the former POTUS and MAGA Republicans as a threat to the Constitution.
Taking to his own social media platform Truth Social, Trump posted that “someone should explain to Joe Biden, slowly but passionately, that MAGA means, as powerfully as mere words can get, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Biden: Trump, MAGA Republicans ‘Represent Extremism’ That Threaten ‘Very Foundation of Our Republic’
2 September 2022, 00:13 GMT
The 45th US president then claimed that if Biden “doesn't want to Make America Great Again, which through words, action, and thought, he doesn't, then he certainly should not be representing the United States of America!”
“If you look at the words and meaning of the awkward and angry Biden speech tonight, he threatened America, including with the possible use of military force. He must be insane, or suffering from late stage dementia!” Trump argued.
Republicans lawmakers, for their part, also scoffed at Biden’s address to the nation that was only broadcast live by CNN and MSNBC.
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted that “there’s nothing wrong with America’s soul” and that “the American people are hurting” because of Biden’s policies. Graham urged the 46th president to “stop lecturing and change” his policies “before it’s too late.”
A similar tone was struck by Graham’s colleague Bill Hagerty, who insisted that “what would help the ‘soul of the nation’ much more than a condescending lecture from President Biden is getting inflation under control instead of actively spending more money to make it worse.”
Another Republican Senator, Marsha Blackburn, accused Biden of using political language during the speech, claiming that POTUS “attacked” Republicans “to distract from the fact his economic agenda caused inflation to reach a historic 40-year high and sent our [US] economy into a recession.”
The remarks followed Biden arguing in his 24-minute address on Thursday that Trump and MAGA Republicans “represent the extremism that threatens the very foundation of our republic” and that they purportedly “don’t respect the Constitution, the rule of law, or the will of the people.”
The 46th president also accused MAGA forces of being “determined to take this country backward,” referring to the January 6, 2021 breach of the US Capitol.
“Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to marry who you love. They look at the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6th not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots”.
January 6, 2022 marked the first anniversary of the Capitol breach, which saw a mob, including some supporters of Trump, attempt to stop Congress from certifying the results of what the 45th president slammed as "the most corrupt election" in US history.
Trump was accused of "incitement of insurrection" despite having called on his supporters, via his now-suspended Twitter account, "to stay peaceful" and "go home", and recording a video address on January 7th condemning the violence. He was impeached for an unprecedented second time over the accusations, but was then acquitted in the Senate.