US president Joe Biden continued his attack on Donald Trump during a primetime speech in Philadelphia. With the mid-term elections in the US scheduled just two months later, Biden attacked Trump and the ‘MAGA republicans’ alleging that they are “determined to take this country backwards.”

The MAGA Republicans are supporters of former US President Donald Trump within the Republican Party. MAGA is the acronym for Donald Trump’s election slogan Make America Great Again.

Also read: How Biden’s primetime speech shows U-turn in stance on Trump

Biden held the MAGA Republicans responsible for the violence that took place at the US Capitol on 6th January 2021. He said, “Democracy cannot survive when one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election, either they win or they were cheated”, and added, “You can’t love your country only when you win.”

In another speech last week, Joe Biden had attacked the ‘extreme’ Trump supporters as ‘semi-fascists’. 

In a panel study on the MAGA Republicans, it was found that at least 60% of them were strong Republican supporters. The study also found that the demographic composition of the MAGA republicans is majorly white, male, Christian, over 65 years of age, and retired. Almost all members of this movement were found to believe Donald Trump’s election fraud claims.

As the two political parties throw their punches at each other, Biden’s strategy of singling out the ‘MAGA Republicans’ has not gone down well with the Republican party. The US president has been consistently drawing a line between the supporters of Donald Trump and the “majority of Republicans”.

Spokespersons from the Republican party criticized this approach as an attempt to divide the American people. However, the White House, on its part, has refuted the criticisms saying that the ‘ultra MAGA Republicans’ are trying to avoid accountability, according to a report by Reuters. 

Also read: Joe Biden primetime speech: Trump, MAGA supporters threaten democracy

“We understand that we hit a nerve, we get that. We understand that they’re trying to hide. And we understand that ultra MAGA office holders want to play games here and dodge accountability,” the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in an address to the media. 

As the elections come closer, it seems that the MAGA Republicans are going to remain at the forefront of the US President’s posturing against the opposition.