US President Joe Biden’s remarks on MAGA
Republicans during his primetime address Thursday has turned into a social
media trend. Biden’s remarks did rounds of Twitter, the platform which Elon
Musk had once called the de-facto public town square, through the day. While
many, especially those aligned to the Democrat brand of politics, thought Biden’s
speech was inspired and just what America needed in this moment of crisis,
those on the right saw the president’s speech to me aimed at “pitting Americans
against Americans.”

Adam Blickstein, who identifies on Twitter as a former
DOD public affairs, sought to address the controversy over a US President
speaking with marines in the background. He shared a photograph of George W
Bush doing the same thing and captioned the picture: “Omg I can’t believe Biden
spoke with two marines behind him tonight what a break from presidential norms.”

A few hours later, Blickstein tweeted: “Some
elites obsessively focus on the optics of Biden’s speech more that the
substance because the substance, American democracy is legitimately at risk, is
so difficult to reconcile with.”

Andrew Weissman, another Twitter user, wrote: “Amazing
that a Democrat has to give this speech because so many Republican leaders are
too in fear of Trump – and enamoured of power – to clean up their own party
(even though they privately agree with what Biden is saying about Trump).”

Meanwhile, Liz Wheeler, a podcaster, wrote: “Biden
tells people to ‘respect legitimate political differences’ while condemning
Republican views as illegitimate. This is what communists do.”

Jessy Kelly, another pro-Republican digital
content creator, wrote even before Biden’s address: “The intention behind this
speech will be threefold: 1: paint Republicans as enemies of the state 2:
signal to violent street communists that violence is ok 3: try to provoke a
violent response from the right to justify crackdowns.”

Biden, in his address, had said: “Too much of what’s
happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans
represent and extremism that threatens our very republic. MAGA Republicans do
not respect the Constitution.”

“MAGA forces are determined to take this country
backwards. Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right
to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They
promote authoritarian leaders. They fanned the flames of political violence,”
the United States President said.