(Headline USA) New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu slammed President Joe Biden this week for comparing former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement to “semi-fascism,” calling it “insulting.”
“The fact that the president would go out and just insult half of America, because effectively half of America votes Republican, half of America ultimately votes Democrat,” Sununu told CNN this weekend.
“It swings a little bit one way or the other, but effectively call half of America semi-fascist, because he’s trying to stir up controversy, he’s trying to stir up this anti-Republican sentiment right before the election, it’s just — it’s horribly inappropriate,” he continued.
Voters “should be insulted” by Biden’s comments, Sununu said, because they were “insulting.”
“He should apologize,” he added.
The governor went on to condemn “extreme” rhetoric in both parties, citing Republicans’ tendencies to blast Democrats as “ultra-socialist communists.”
“So, when we allow ourselves just to talk in these extremes, we polarize the country,” he said.
“We bring people further apart. If I remember, this was the guy, the candidate at the time, that said he was going to bring everybody together. And then to call half of America fascists, come on.”
Speaking at a Democratic National Committee rally in Maryland last Thursday, Biden claimed Republicans have embraced an “extreme MAGA philosophy.”
“It’s not just Trump,” Biden said. “It’s the entire philosophy that underpins the – I’m going to say something: It’s like semi-fascism.”
Even after facing pushback for the remark, the White House decided to double down on it.
“I was very clear when laying out and defining what MAGA Republicans have done and you look at the definition of fascism and you think about what they’re doing in attacking our democracy. … That is what that is. It is very clear,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week.
