White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said those who disagree with the “majority of Americans” are “extreme” at Thursday’s press briefing.
Jean-Pierre responded to RealClearPolitics White House reporter Phillip Wegmann’s question about whether the White House views pro-life legislative efforts as “extremist” or “semi-fascist.” President Joe Biden used the term “semi-fascism” to describe the philosophy of pro-Trump Republicans during an Aug. 25 rally in Maryland.
“Here’s what I’ll say,” Jean-Pierre said in response to Wegmann. “We continue to see attacks on people’s fundamental rights, right? Of Americans with new abortion laws across the country. And when you have national Republicans who are leaders in their political party, who sit in office, who say that they want to take away the rights, even in case of incest and in case of rape, and taking away a woman’s right to make a decision on her body.”
“That’s extreme, and the president’s going to call that out,” she continued. “He’s going to continue to do everything that he can to make sure that we protect people’s freedoms. He’s going to do everything that he can to call that out. And that is important to call out, that is important to talk about.”
“And again, we see [a] majority of Americans who disagree, and so when you are not with where a majority of Americans are, then that is extreme, that is an extreme way of thinking,” Jean-Pierre concluded.
The White House has recently made several statements branding former President Donald Trump, “Make America Great Again” Republican lawmakers and their supporters as extremists. The press secretary called supporters of the former president “an extremist threat to our democracy” at Wednesday’s briefing. (RELATED: ‘He Was Attacking The Entire Party’: Karl Rove, Juan Williams Spar Over Biden’s ‘Semi-Fascism’ Remark)
“The president thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy,” she said Wednesday. “The president has been clear as he can be on that particular piece when we talk about our democracy, when we talk about our freedoms. The way that he sees the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party. This is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights. They just don’t respect the rule of law.”
Jean-Pierre also defended Biden’s “semi-fascism” remark at Friday’s briefing, claiming that the Republican agenda aligns with the definition of fascism.
“You look at the definition of fascism and you think about what they’re doing in attacking our democracy, what they are doing in taking away our freedoms … our voting rights,” she said.