MSNBC panelists and host Stephanie Ruhle noted that the speech from President Joe Biden about Jan. 6 was his most emphatic, clearest and forceful dissection of Donald Trump's lies.
Speaking Thursday, Biden said, "No one can place a dagger on the throat of democracy."
"It was clearly the most forceful rebuke that he has delivered in his year as president against Trump, against Trumpism, against the lie over the election and against the divide in the country that we're experiencing," said Washington Post reporter Phil Rucker. "It was a rhetorically very forceful speech, it was the kind of remark that I think a lot of Democrats have been hoping to hear from Biden for some time. What we saw here was President Biden clearly believing that his predecessor, Donald Trump -- the threat of American democracy and using that moment the anniversary and the attention that it has around the country to try to galvanize Americans to understand that threat and to fight to protect what he perceived as democracy and peril."
New York Times reporter Peter Baker noted that Biden has worked so hard to try and keep his eyes focused on the future and not look to the past. That clearly changed in one speech.
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"I think what he's seen in the last year is that you can't simply pretend that President Trump has gone away because he hasn't gone away, he is still not only a force in American politics, he is the leading figure in the Republican Party and if he wants the nomination in 2024 to run for the presidency again," Rucker continued. "I think most people believe he will be the like least person to win that nomination for the Republican Party. You cannot pretend that he doesn't exist anymore. This is the most full-throated denunciation by the sitting president, the former president of what we've seen from him."
Ruhle noted that it wasn't the typical "folksy Joe Biden" to which Americans have become accustomed.
See the discussion below.
Not folksy Joe Bidenwww.youtube.com
IN OTHER NEWS: Donald Trump lashes out after President Biden's forceful Jan. 6 speech dissected Trump's lies
Donald Trump lashes out after Pesident Biden's forceful Jan. 6www.youtube.com
