On Wednesday, President Joe Biden gave yet another speech about threats to democracy. He attacked 2020 election deniers and accused them of inspiring political violence.
But Fox News commentator Jesse Watters slammed the speech as empty rhetoric.
The president singled out “ultra MAGA” Republicans — a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — calling them a minority but “driving force” of the Republican Party.
Pointing in particular to last Friday’s attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Biden said that Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about a stolen election have “fueled the dangerous rise of political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years.”
Emphasizing that it is the first federal election since the Capitol riot and former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Biden called on voters to reject candidates who have denied the results of the vote.
On Fox News, Watters characterized Biden’s speech as a pathetic attempt to whip votes ahead of a red wave.
“That was the president of the United States confessing he is about to get wiped out a week from now,” Watters said on the air Wednesday. “No one is going to question the results of this election, Mr. President, because it’s going to be a blowout. It’s not even going to be close.”
Watters urged Biden to leave the 2020 election in the past.
“He talked about something that happened two years ago,” Watters said. “He’s the only one talking about the 2020 election. No one else is talking about 2020 except Joe Biden and MSNBC. That’s it.” Many of those inside Trump’s own administration eventually acknowledged the results of the 2020 election or moved on to other issues, although Trump remains fixated on it.
The Fox News commentator also questioned Biden’s decision to discuss political violence. He said that Paul Pelosi’s attacker was an illegal immigrant given sanctuary by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat up for re-election this year.
Watters also said that Biden has yet to comment on the record about the failed attack on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Some guest commentators, alongside Watters, also took issue with Biden’s hypocrisy.
Kayleigh McEnany, a former aide in Trump’s White House, accused Biden of his own form of election denying.
“It’s hard to believe that ‘Jim Crow 2.0′ is happening in Georgia,” McEnany said, quoting Biden’s screed against Georgia’s 2021 law for election integrity. “Early voting is up in Georgia.”
Karl Rove, a former member of George W. Bush’s administration, accused Biden of promoting election deniers and benefiting from election denial.
“Biden considered another election denier to be his running mate: Stacey Abrams,” Rove said, referring to Abrams’ refusal to concede a 2018 race.
Rove, like Watters, encouraged Biden to move on from the 2020 election.
“There are people who were a threat to democracy. We saw them break into the Capitol, beat up police officers, attempt to find the vice president of the United States and the speaker of the House and do violence to them,” Rove said while acknowledging Biden’s victory in 2020.
“A lot of them have been indicted, and a number of them are on trial today, and a number have pled guilty.”
Biden last delivered a prime-time speech on what he called the “continued battle for the soul of the nation” on Sept. 1 outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, in which he condemned the “MAGA forces” of Trump and his adherents as a threat to America’s system of government.
In contrast to the September remarks, which drew criticism from some corners for being paid for by taxpayers, Biden’s Wednesday night speech was hosted by the Democratic National Committee.
Watters summarized Biden’s latest remarks as as a “lazy speech written by hacks and poorly delivered.”
The Horn editorial team