It's difficult to understand the precise reasoning behind President Donald Trump's latest claim made at a Tampa, Florida rally on Thursday.
According to Trump, Biden once said that Antifa is an "idea" not an organization. Biden also said that America is an "idea." Ergo, Biden thinks the United States is Antifa.
It's the same logic used by first-semester philosophy majors: My dog's hair is blond. Trump's hair is blond. Therefore, my dog is president.
Biden speaks about America as not just a country, but a groundbreaking government that had never been attempted in the world when the country was founded.
“America was an idea, an idea,” Biden said on Brene Brown’s podcast last week. “‘We hold these truths to be self-evident.’ We’ve never lived up to it, but we’ve never walked away from it before. And I just think we have to be more honest. Let our kids know, as we raise them, what actually did happen. Acknowledge our mistakes so we don’t repeat them.”
“So I think it’s important we teach history, not in a prescriptive way, from my perspective, but what actually the facts were without also acknowledging that there’s 400 years of racism in the United States of America. That’s what it is. And it’s able to be fixed,” he explained.
It's a similar sentiment that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has said when he talks about the American government and the history of the United States.
“America is an idea, not a race,” Graham said, adding that the strength of the United States is its diversity. “I’ve always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals.”
Antifa is a short word for anti-Fascism. So, if a person doesn't support Nazis, Hitler and other forms of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism, that would make them an anti-Fascist.
See the video of Trump below:
