Biden: Trump's MAGA movement threatens American democracy

(Patria) - President Joe Biden launched an attack on Republican Donald Trump, warning that his predecessor poses a threat to American democracy, Reuters reported.

"Something dangerous is happening in America," Biden said.

In a speech at the Tempe Center for the Arts in Arizona at an event honoring Republican Senator John McCain, a former presidential candidate, fighter pilot, and Vietnam POW whom Trump said "is not a war hero," Biden noted that Trump has suggested in recent weeks that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserves to be killed and that the Department of Justice should be defunded.

Biden also recalled remarks Trump allegedly made after abandoning plans to visit an American military cemetery near Paris in 2018. The Atlantic at the time reported that Trump called war dead "suckers" and "losers," which Trump denied.

"Was John a sucker?" Biden asked of McCain, then asked the same question of his son Beau Biden, who, like McCain, died of brain cancer, which Biden believes his son contracted from military service in Iraq.

Biden drew a sharp contrast between his beliefs and those of Trump, who he said considers himself above the U.S. Constitution, the founding documents that set up a system of checks and balances.

"I strongly believe that our Constitution is the defining characteristic of our democracy," the president said.

"I believe in free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power," he added.

Biden said he doesn't think all Republicans subscribe to the "MAGA" agenda, a reference to Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan. But, he said, "there is no doubt that today's Republican Party is led and intimidated by MAGA Republican extremists."

He amplified his warnings about the potential threat to democracy posed by Trump, citing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"We would argue like two brothers... and then we'd go to lunch together," Biden said of
Senator McCain.