Biden Thinks Trump Is the Problem, Not All Republicans. Other Democrats Disagree.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

DUBUQUE, Iowa — As Joseph R. Biden Jr. made his way across Iowa on his first trip as a 2020 presidential candidate, the former vice president repeatedly returned to one term — aberration — when he referred to the Trump presidency.

“Limit it to four years,” Mr. Biden pleaded with a ballroom crowd of 600 in the eastern Iowa city of Dubuque. “History will treat this administration’s time as an aberration.”

“This is not the Republican Party,” he added, citing his relationships with “my Republican friends in the House and Senate.”

There is no disagreement among Democrats about the urgency of defeating President Trump. But Mr. Biden’s singular focus on the president as the source of the nation’s ills, while extending an olive branch to Republicans, has exposed a significant fault line in the Democratic primary.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-thinks-trump-is-the-problem-not-all-republicans-other-democrats-disagree/ar-AAATspR?li=BBnbcA1

I love you Joe but the matter of the fact is the GOP sold their souls to Trump. They'll sell their souls to anyone or anything that gives them power.

[DonCoquixote]

1. This shows he has not learned

and considering he saw them torch Obama, he should have. The GOP can talk all they wan about deficits and russian hating, but it is all a screen for them to get more money.

[katmondoo]

7. Biden has disappointed me with that statement

[Jarqui]

2. Trump wound not be president and could not continue to be president

if the Republicans were not enabling him.

The GOP will only keep Trump around as long as he serves their purposes.
If he does not improve his polling numbers, they'll throw him under the bus and get someone else.

Biden knows the score. He's pandering for the center.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Exactly.

It took the Republicans to take down Nixon and they need to step up to bring down Trump. He is not a Republican, doesn't share any of their beliefs, he is only in this for Trump, nothing and no one else.

[jalan48]

3. Ugh.

[Eko]

4. Ahem.

"former Washington Rep. turned Gov. Jay Inslee netted bipartisan backing for 50 percent of his total career legislation " https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/some-2020-democrats-work-with-gop-more-than-you-might-think

[redstateblues]

10. Great article. Haven't we forgiven Warren for being a Reagan fan?

[Bradshaw3]

26. That was more than two decades ago

While Biden said it the other day. Lame comparison.

[Celerity]

40. she was not a Reagan fan, that's a smear, see my post

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287106559#post39

[Celerity]

39. that is not a factual statement at all

she was only a registered Republican from 1987 to 1996, after she moved to PA

She grew up in an FDR Democratic household.

Her first vote the POTUS was AGAINST Nixon in 1972. She did vote for Ford, but liked Carter. She voted Carter in 1980 and Mondale in 1984. In 1988 she voted for Dukakis, and in 1992, Clinton. Obviously voted for Clinton again in 1996 and every other Democrat since then. She registered as a Republican because she had moved to PA and liked Arlen Specter, who also switched to our Party from Republican.


Maybe people also have issues with former Republicans Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta, Chris Coons (has Biden's old seat in the Senate), Carolyn McCarthy, Harley Rouda, Gabby Giffords, James Webb, Wendy Davis, Gil Cisneros, Jim Jeffords, Patrick Murphy, and Specter himself, etc.etc etc. Some of them even ran (oh the HORROR!) for President.

Speaking of other current Democratic candidates, you sure as hell do not see Warren going and giving a 200,000 USD (plus 50,000 in travel expenses) paid speech to a Republican fundraiser for a Republican Representative named Fred Upton (who had just voted to repeal Obamacare a few months before) in Michigan a few months back, right before the 2018 elections. That doesn't seem like a very Democratic-friendly thing to do does it? Warren would not have done it, no way.

Her first presidential vote, in 1972, had been cast against a man she said she disliked passionately, Richard Nixon. But reflecting on how little she had paid attention to day-to-day politics at the time, she couldn’t immediately recall who had been running against him. When told it was Democrat George McGovern, she said, Yes, she would have voted for him but didn’t have any specific memory of having done so. (She was living in New Jersey at the time.)

Going to the polls, she said, was nothing new for her. Warren’s mother had been a poll worker and brought her young daughter to the polls each Election Day.

Nixon was re-elected that year, of course, but resigned and was replaced by Gerald Ford. Warren said she had voted for him in 1976, believing that “Ford was a decent man.”

But she was happy with Jimmy Carter, who beat him. “I thought he [also] was a decent man,” she said, transferring her then-standard for what she wanted in a politician from Ford to Carter. “He was a really good man.”

As the ’80s wore on and her research on bankruptcy progressed, Warren started waking up politically. At the time, though, the two parties had yet to separate entirely along ideological lines, as some deeply conservative and racist Democrats still held office, as did some genuinely liberal Republicans.

In 1988, Warren voted for Michael Dukakis but, in 1992, split her ticket, voting for Republican Arlen Specter for Senate and Democrat Bill Clinton for president. Specter is a good example of the one-time flexibility of the party system and the politicians within it: He began and ended his career as a Democrat, but was a Republican for much of the middle of it.

By the fall of 1987, she had moved to Pennsylvania and registered there as a Republican. Warren said she couldn’t quite remember why she did it but that she was a fan of Specter. “Again, I thought he was a decent man,” she said. She couldn’t recall whom he ran against. (His Democratic opponent was Lynn Yeakel.)

That GOP registration, though, has set off speculation over the years that one of the Senate’s most progressive champions may have at one time been a Ronald Reagan backer.

So we asked her: Is it true? Is it possible the champion of the regulatory cops on Wall Street voted for the man who made deregulation a hallmark of his presidency?

No.

In 1980, she said, she was a registered independent living in Missouri City, Texas, and cast her vote to re-elect Carter.

When Reagan won, she wasn’t happy but not crushed the way she was on election night in 2016. “I was disappointed and didn’t like him, but I wasn’t deeply worried for the country, not anything like when Trump was elected,” she explained. If she could go back in time, she said, she would tell herself “this was a far more pivotal historical moment than you understand.”

Warren is tied for the 2nd lowest Trump score in the entire Senate



compare that to the highest Democrats




NO way can she be framed as some consistently villainous ex-Rethug who was in it for the cash (she grew up dirt poor) and is some late-comer to the game.

She is a ROCK SOLID Democrat, a wonderful, warm, hyper-intelligent, lucid-thinking person and would make a superb POTUS.

[marylandblue]

14. And now he is running on an urgent issue with ZERO Republican support.

There will be no bipartisan consensus bill to save the earth.

[Eko]

16. Actually there are some republicans

who think climate change needs to be addressed.
"In recent weeks Senator John Cornyn of Texas — an oil state where climate denial runs deep — said he is helping write legislation to reduce emissions through “energy innovation.” Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said he wants to create a “Manhattan Project” for clean energy funding. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is exploring bipartisan plans to curb emissions from her position as chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. And Representative Matthew Gaetz of Florida, who once called to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, introduced legislation to tackle climate change by encouraging nuclear energy and hydropower, as well as “carbon capture” technology, which aims to pull planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/climate/republicans-climate-change-policies.html

[marylandblue]

17. If they are actually on board with this, they need to shout it from the rooftops

be prepared to spend trillions of dollars and not imagine that throwing a few pennies at "innovation" or pie-in-the-sky carbon capture is going to do it. Most importantly they need to be willing to break party ranks to get it done. Only Murkowski has been willing to buck her party at all, and even then it's a rarity and under much public pressure.

[Eko]

19. Seems a little like you are moving the goalposts.

"And now he is running on an urgent issue with ZERO Republican support."

[marylandblue]

20. Zero support for Inslee's proposals, nothing in that article is even close

to that or any other real climate policy.

[Eko]

21. .

"And now he is running on an urgent issue with ZERO Republican support."

[marylandblue]

22. I took your information into your account and clarified what I meant.

Thanks for the new info and the opportunity to clarify.

[Eko]

24. How does that make any sense as your argument?

What Democratic candidate has proposals that has support from republicans?

[marylandblue]

25. I didn't say any of them did. I hope they all plan to twist Republican arms if necessary.

Biden's focus on Trump and a return to normalcy makes me wonder what he really thinks about his Republican former colleagues.

[BeckyDem]

5. The GOP going back as far as Reagan is the problem.

The sad thing is Biden is not kidding. How awful.

[marylandblue]

15. At least Reagan and Bush I did make bipartisan deals

That became harder in the Clinton years, unless it aligned with Republican priorities, and under Obama, it became impossible.

[BeckyDem]

29. True.

[Skittles]

6. it IS the Republican party

and it has been FOR DECADES

[dalton99a]

9. Republicans in Congress may be your personal friends, Joe, but they ain't no friends of Democrats

Last edited Sat May 4, 2019, 10:35 PM - Edit history (1)

or democracy

And no, Donald Trump is not an aberration - he is the glorious apex of their natural evolution

[Sugarcoated]

33. I call him the physical manifestation of their hate

[Autumn]

11. OFFS This IS the Republican party Mitch, Lindsey, Jordan, Gowdy, Nunes. The whole fucking bunch

of them are every bit as bad as Trump, if not worse. His fucking "Republican friends in the House and Senate.” have enabled Trump and are a danger to the world. Was Joe asleep when Obama was denied everything from his legislation benefiting America to the denial of his supreme court judge pick ?

No just fucking no, Republicans are not fucking friends.

[bullwinkle428]

12. John Fugelsang has an AWESOME "Star Wars" analogy on this subject.

He states that they blew up the "Death Star" in the 1st movie, but then went on to make 9 more movies! Trump is just the Death Star.

[shanny]

13. and therein lies the problem with Joe Biden:

He's a dinosaur. I do not refer to his age, per se, but to his mind set and perceptions, which were formed in another time. The problem isn't tRump, Joe, it is the people who see him as an aberration.

[NYMinute]

18. It is an incredibly clever strategy on the part of Biden

It is easier to isolate Trump and his core supporters as a problem.

Indicting all republicans sounds reckless and we will turn off center and center-right independents, a lot of whom hold conservative positions but intensely hate Trump.

This election is going to be a war fought for every single vote and it is not intended to provide satisfaction to our inner feelings.

Biden is 100% correct in this. Lofty slogans and idealistic platitudes are good for candidates who are sure they would lose but it helps them raise money from angry people.

By not demonizing the entire opposition, Biden also makes it easier for himself to unite the country after he wins.

[Politicub]

23. Normally I would say that comments like this are pretty meaningless

But that was before Trump. Him and his enablers, which is the entire GOP, should be given no cover nor quarter.

Biden doesn't have anything to gain with this line of thinking.

On edit: And the more I think about it, the more smug it sounds to talk about your GOP friends in congress. These wonderful friends are working to fuck over the American people unceasingly and as a bloc, by confirming judges, whitewashing Trump's crimes, and putting the country in deeper debt by padding the pockets of the mega rich.

Perhaps they will smile when they stab Biden in the back.

[emmaverybo]

27. If Trump goes, the path is cleared to get rid of weakened Republicans

Trump rebuked, whether voted out or impeached, leaves Repugs discredited, in that they have moved mountains to support the cretin, and without MAGA-Tism, which they need desperately as their numbers are severely diminished. What is the current percentage of registered Repugs? They will be a wounded, minority party.
And the worst thing Biden could do pre-election is bash Republicans, given that we need cross over votes, and already have many defectors. But bashing their former affiliation does not help.
What the problem is here is that for progressives Biden will never be aggressive enough on the opposition party, revolutionary enough about the need for system change, never be “down with the establishment” enough.
Neither will the House leadership.
But time and again, we have been shown that the country as a whole, and the whole of the Democratic Party, do not lean as far left as the party progressives.
That does not mean a progressive candidate might not rise to the top or that some of the progressive agenda will not be taken up by whomever the candidate is.
But these Biden complaints do not tell his supporters anything they don’t know. Biden is a centrist Democrat by today’s standards.
Some of us believe that goes to his electability.

[robbedvoter]

31. Electability only you guys count. And trumpies too.

To hell with the democratic base. White 🍆🍆 wall to wall. I hope "electability" goes the way "she should smile more" did.

[dchill]

28. Biden is wrong, if I may be so bold.

[robbedvoter]

30. For those saying war, crime bill etc are in the past - this is today

This is the clue about how he'd govern today. Kissing GOP's ass.

[emulatorloo]

32. This isn't going to work, MSM. Good luck anyway I guess

We need to understand there are disaffected Trump voters in the Rust Belt who looking for reasons to Dump Trump and vote for a Democratic President.

A number of our candidates have that appeal. So it may not be Biden who gets the nomination.

But these spescious narratives coming out of the MSM need to be refuted, not repeated and elevated.

[StevieM]

34. He's wrong. The Republican Party is becoming a fascist party and Donald Trump is not to blame.

Paul Ryan embraced the principles of fascism, and sought to lead our country down that road, before Donald Trump did. And Ryan probably deserves more credit for the 2016 victory than Trump does.

The moment when Paul Ryan said "this defies explanation," regarding Hillary not being indicted, was a historic turning point in our country's history. It was the moment when the GOP walked away from democracy and the rule of law.

And it was going to happen with or without Donald Trump.

[Sugarcoated]

35. The way I see it is

Biden's making a conscious decision to not alienate voters that we need, whose votes he needs to win back. I know it was twisted and intentionally misunderstood, but we lost a lot of votes in rural areas of the country when Hillary made the deplorable comment.

[StevieM]

37. We lost those voters because of the relentless actions of James Comey.

The deplorables comment was made into a bigger deal after the election than it was during the election.

HRC didn't say that people in rural areas were deplorable, nor do I believe the evidence indicates that the voter there took it that way. She was talking about people who were responding to Donald Trump's campaign of hate. And she also pointed out that many of his voters were responding to real issues, like economic concerns.

Sometimes a person's words can be successfully twisted, but I don't think it happened here. We did a good job of delivering the message that we are stronger together, but that was overridden by the fake email scandal.

[Autumn]

36. It was Turtle and his cohorts who blocked Obama's pick for the Supreme Court seat

that a drunken liar now sits in. I don't recall Trump being the force behind Benghazi and the bullshit about HER EMAILS!! It was the fucking Republicans who vowed to block anything Obama tried to pass. Who passed the monstrous tax cuts for the wealthy? Trump isn't the problem he's the stooge Republicans use. The problem is anyone who gives their Republican friends in the House and Senate a pass and thinks that the fat orange fuck shitting in the White House is the problem is wrong.

[Honeycombe8]

38. I agree w/most Democrats, but....if he gets the nomination, he has to work w/those guys.

Painting them as evil Trumpers from the start doesn't serve any useful purpose, maybe. And some of them are his friends.

Just playing devil's advocate.

(I TOTALLY disagree with him, btw. Not ALL Republicans. But at least many of them. I don't know how many are complicit. But at least half.)