Pollak: Biden’s Union Station Speech Was ‘Dark Brandon’ 2.0

President Joe Biden’s speech on September 1 attacking “MAGA Republicans” as a “threat to this country” failed to move polls in the Democrats’ direction. In fact, it arguably helped to reverse Republicans’ sinking fortunes, and to revive the prospect of a “red wave.”

The speech was dark and pessimistic, and frightened some Republicans into thinking their physical safety was at stake in 2022. But even voters who did not feel personally targeted understood one thing clearly: Biden’s main focus was politics, not their well-being.

Biden’s message has not improved in two months. Lacking a coherent argument on inflation, crime, or the border, he resorted again to attacking Republicans as a threat to democracy, linking them to the deranged illegal alien who attacked Paul Pelosi last week.

The president tried to argue that because the assailant used the phrase “Where is Nancy?”, he was evoking the chants of the mob at the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Biden went on to implicate former President Donald Trump, and indeed Republicans as a whole.