White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre doubled down Sunday on President Joe Biden’s attacks on extreme “MAGA Republicans.”
The president gave a speech Thursday in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where he described “MAGA Republicans” and supporters of former President Donald Trump extremists who threaten democracy. In a separate Aug. 26 address, he categorized their philosophy as “semi-fascism.”
During a prebuttal delivered before Biden’s Philadelphia speech, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the president should “apologize for slandering tens of millions of Americans as ‘fascists.'”
On Sunday, MSNBC’s Jonathon Capehart invoked McCarthy’s remark, asking Jean-Pierre if the president “owes half the country an apology.” Jean-Pierre told Capehart that the president only referred to an “extreme” faction of Republicans that have taken control of the party.
“The president was very clear, all you have to do, again, folks need to watch his speech, go read his speech if you haven’t. It is powerful, it is impactful and you will hear directly from the commander-in-chief what he was speaking to,” the press secretary said. “And he actually called out, he called out mainstream Republicans, Democrats, Independents to come join him, to help protect, to fight to protect our democracy. So it was about a specific, particular, extreme, extreme part of the party that has taken over.”
The press secretary added that it is essential to protect the values of the nation and of democracy. (RELATED: Jean-Pierre Says Biden’s Attacks On ‘MAGA Republicans’ Are ‘Not Political’)
“It is up to us in this moment to make sure that we are protecting the values of this country. That’s why he did this speech at this Independence Hall,” she concluded.
The White House has repeatedly doubled down on the president’s recent remarks about his political opponents. At Wednesday’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre called “MAGA Republicans” an “extremist threat to our democracy” and promised that the president will continue to spread that message.
“The president thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy,” she said. “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.”
At Thursday’s briefing, she claimed that Republican leaders’ stances on abortion and other “fundamental rights” are “extreme” because they do not align with the majority of Americans.