Trump, 'MAGA Republicans' threaten foundation of US: Biden

By Servet Gunerigok

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden attacked his Republican predecessor Donald Trump and his supporters Thursday, saying "equality and democracy are under assault" by Trump-led extremism.

"We must be honest with each other and with ourselves. Too much of what's happening in our country today is not normal," said the president in a prime-time speech in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. "Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic."

He was referring to Make America Great Again, a slogan Trump used in his campaign for the 2016 presidential race.

Biden stressed that not every Republican or even the majority of Republicans are MAGA Republicans.

“Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. I know, because I have been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.”

"But there's no question that the Republican party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country," he said.

"MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love," he added.

In early August, Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida was raided by the FBI, prompting him to lash out at what he called an unprecedented "assault” and accuse his political opponents of weaponizing the justice system.

According to a court document filed by the Justice Department late Tuesday, over 100 classified records, including some materials marked with the highest level of classification, were recovered from Trump’s residence.

Classified federal documents were likely "concealed and removed" from a storage room at the residence in an effort to "obstruct" the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Trump’s potential mishandling of classified materials, said the department.

Obstruction of justice now appears to be the central thrust of the federal investigation, which was opened to probe Trump's alleged removal of classified government documents from the White House as he left office in January 2021.