President Joe Biden is facing backlash on social media after he called for violence against supporters of former President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on Thursday.
During his first public appearance with Vice President Kamala Harris after dropping out of the race and endorsing her, Biden was heard urging the crowd to get violent against his political opponents.
“Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is: beat the hell out of them,” Biden told the audience, prompting cheers.
“I mean it!” he shouted.
Biden’s comments referenced the debunked Democrat conspiracy theory about The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” a blueprint released by the conservative think tank for the next presidency. The left has repeatedly used lies to fearmonger about the contents of the blueprint and falsely connected it to Trump, despite the former president’s repeated rejection of the blueprint.
Meanwhile, Biden’s call for violence prompted widespread backlash on social media, including from the Trump campaign.
The official Trump War Room X account responded to the clip by pointing out that Biden’s comments were especially abhorrent because they came just “a month after the assassination attempt against President Trump. Disgusting!”
Biden instructs the audience to "beat the hell" out of Republicans — a month after the assassination attempt against President Trump. Disgusting! pic.twitter.com/MpxSGBsu4h
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 15, 2024
“Is this a call to violence?” asked Libs of TikTok.
Biden tells audience to "beat the hell out" of Republicans.
Is this a call to violence?pic.twitter.com/e52uM4fGev
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 15, 2024
Collin Rugg pointed out the hypocrisy surrounding Biden’s comments, noting how the mainstream media would have lost their minds if Trump had been the one to make the remark.
“If Trump said this, it would be wall-to-wall coverage on MSNBC for the next three weeks. WaPo would be putting the ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’ banner up,” he wrote.
If Trump said this, it would be wall-to-wall coverage on MSNBC for the next three weeks.
WaPo would be putting the 'Democracy Dies in Darkness' banner up.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 15, 2024
Another user responded with a collection of screenshots of Biden’s past X posts calling Trump and his supporters a “threat” to the country, arguing that “Biden knows exactly what he’s inciting.” Democrats understand that the mentally unstable members of their party, like the would-be assassin, believe the lies about Trump being a threat — and thus will hear the calls for violence and act.
Biden knows exactly what he’s inciting! pic.twitter.com/q93xtaOMCg
— Paul Hookem (@PaulHook_em) August 15, 2024
Others pointed out that the left falsely frames comments from Trump to claim that he is calling for violence — such as the time that the media took his comments about an economic “bloodbath” for the auto industry out of context — but they refuse to even call out legitimately violent statements from Democrats.
If they consider Trump saying the Auto industry is going to be a bloodbath and that is a threat then we can take this as a threat apparently
— Deborah the Bruce 2 (@DeborahtheBruc1) August 15, 2024
