United
States President Joe Biden’s Thursday address will target ‘MAGA Republicans,’
during his address from the Independence National Historical Park, NBC News
reported. Biden’s address, while couched as a White House event, is likely to
involve canvassing for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

For
Biden, the focus will be on “battle for the soul of the nation,” a phrase the
former US vice president and now president, has been repeating since 2017. “He
will talk about the direct threats to democracy from MAGA Republicans and the
extremism that is a threat now to our democratic values,” a senior member of
the Biden administration told reporters over a telephone call.

Also Read | Lawyers in Trump White House to appear before 1/6 grand jury

The
president will speak out against “a movement that does not recognise free and
fair elections, a movement that increasingly is talking about violence in
response to actions they don’t like or don’t agree with, which is not the way
democracies behave,” the official said.

The
Biden administration official added that the speech will not be about a
particular person or a particular political party.

As
Biden’s plans surfaced on the news, Republicans have started planning their
retorts. Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee Chairperson, has
accused Biden of “pitting Americans against Americans.”

Also Read | Unfinished business: Biden sharpens his attacks on Trumpism

Previously,
Joe Biden has likened ‘Make America Great Again’ Republicans, essentially
followers of President Donald Trump, to “semi-fascism”. Last week, Joe Biden
accused Republicans of not supporting law enforcement officials by attacking
them for the raid at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.

“What
the president believes, which is a reason to have this in prime time, is that
there is an overwhelming number of Americans, the majority of Americans, who
believe that we need to continue, we need to save the core values of our
country,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary on Wednesday.

“What
he is not going to do is shy away from calling out the extremism he is seeing,
these MAGA Republicans,” Jean-Pierre added.