(FiveNation.com)- Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who’s now serving as a liberal correspondent for MSNBC, said that President Joe Biden has now taken the gloves off and is much more willing to publicly attack what she called “MAGA Republicans.”
Psaki was one of the panelists on the “Meet the Press” show on NBC over the weekend. During the program, she said that Biden was much more hesitant in the early days of his presidency to lash out at former President Donald Trump or those who followed his ways.
That was done, she said, because the American people wanted to move forward from that administration and see what Biden could do in the White House.
Since Biden has successfully passed many of the major items on his agenda — or at least the ones he had a chance of passing — Psaki said he’s now taking a much more hard-line approach to Trump and Republicans. And he’s doing it in hopes of helping Democratic candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.
At the beginning of the program, Psaki is asked by the host why Biden is more willing now to not only mention Trump by name in public, but also attack him and those that follow him. Her response:
“There was a strategic decision made when he came into office that ‘that’s not what the public wanted. The public wanted a president who was going to … kind of expand the base of people who [are] interested in them.
“But now, it’s election season again. He did a lot of what he wanted to do, much of it in a bipartisan way, getting legislation done. And now the gloves are off. He’s got to maintain control of at least one house of Congress.”
Democrats currently have a slight majority in both the House and the Senate, but the prospects of them hanging onto those majorities are not looking too good. That’s why Biden is turning up the heat, in hopes of holding onto at least one chamber of Congress.
If the GOP were able to take control of both the House and the Senate, Biden would have little shot of getting anything at all passed during the final two years of his term.
This change in public stance was seen back in August, when Biden said that Trump and those who support him within the Republican Party are motivated by “semi-fascism.” He said the next month that these people were threats to democracy in America.
Democratic candidates and leadership might be happy to see Biden taking this aggressive stance toward Trump and GOP members who follow his policies. But, it could still prove to be way too little, way too late for liberals hoping to win seats in Congress.
A leading independent pollster said last week that Biden’s change in rhetoric might make it more complicated to get a read on Trump supporters. In other words, Trump voters could be undercounted in the final polls leading up to the midterm elections, which could result in the GOP wins being even bigger than initially expected.
