美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)在一次罕见的黄金时段演讲中，谴责了唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)和他的“MAGA Republicans”，敦促美国团结起来，对抗对美国民主的威胁。
周四晚上8点过后不久，拜登在费城的独立历史公园登台，数百人坐在白色草坪椅子上，独立大厅的正面被红色和蓝色照亮。
“这是美国宪法起草和辩论的地方，”拜登说。"在这里，我们开始了有史以来最不寻常的自治实验。"
“但是当我今晚站在这里时，平等和民主正受到攻击，”他继续说道。“我们不喜欢假装相反。因此，今晚，我来到这个一切开始的地方，尽可能坦率地向全国人民讲述我们面临的威胁，讲述我们手中应对这些威胁的力量，讲述只要我们选择，我们面前的不可思议的未来。”
President Joe Biden speaks about the soul of the nation, outside of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 2022.
吉姆·沃森/法新社通过盖蒂图片
总统提到了他的椭圆形办公室前任的名字，他抨击共和党人拒绝接受2020年的选举结果，为那些在1月6日冲进国会大厦的人辩护，或者想要剥夺堕胎权和其他隐私问题。
“我们国家今天发生的太多事情都是不正常的，”他说。“唐纳德·特朗普和MAGA共和党人代表了一种威胁我们共和国根基的极端主义。”
拜登对所谓的MAGA共和党人和其他保守派进行了区分，称“不是每个共和党人都接受这种极端的意识形态。”
“我知道，因为我能够和这些主流共和党人一起工作，”他说。“但毫无疑问，今天的共和党被唐纳德·特朗普和MAGA共和党人所控制、驱使和恐吓，这对这个国家是一个威胁。”
拜登的紧急言论反映了他2020年的信息，他在其中将自己描述为特朗普的鲜明对比，并将竞选本身描述为国家的转折点。
他周四再次进行了这种比较，告诉人群:“现在美国必须选择前进或后退，建设一个沉迷于过去的未来，成为一个希望、团结和乐观的国家，或者一个恐惧、分裂和黑暗的国家。”
政府官员曾取笑拜登的讲话是他“国家之魂”信息的延伸，这一信息在2017年白人至上主义者与西弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔的反抗议者发生冲突后首次出现-拜登说，这一事件激励他竞选总统。
拜登周四表示，所有美国人都受到“对抗极端分子的责任和良知”的召唤，并拒绝政治暴力。
“我们在本质上仍然是一个民主国家，然而，历史告诉我们，盲目忠于一个领导人，并愿意参与政治暴力，对民主是致命的，”他说。
拜登在费城的露面是他本周在宾夕法尼亚州的三站中的第二站。
在威尔克斯大学(Wilkes University)，拜登周二为他的政府的警务和犯罪预防计划做了陈述，他抨击了MAGA共和党人对1月6日袭击事件和联邦调查局搜查特朗普Mar-a-Lago庄园的反应。
“看在上帝的份上，你站在哪一边?你站在哪一边?”激动的拜登问道。
共和党对拜登的言论发表了先发制人的反驳，众议院少数党领袖凯文·麦卡锡在总统在费城上台前几个小时在斯克兰顿(拜登的家乡)发表了讲话。
麦卡锡在通货膨胀、犯罪和边境问题上批评了民主党人，然后要求拜登“为诽谤数千万美国人是法西斯分子道歉”，此前总统曾将MAGA共和党人采用的意识形态描述为“半法西斯主义”。
麦卡锡说:“乔·拜登不明白的是，美国的灵魂是数千万辛勤工作的人们、充满爱心的家庭和守法的公民，他诋毁这些人仅仅是为了一个更强大、更安全、更繁荣的国家。”
“美国的灵魂不是华盛顿的统治阶级，而是守法纳税的美国公民，”麦卡锡说。“美国的灵魂是我们决心每天起床去工作，供养我们的家庭，爱我们的孩子，参与他们的教育，并确保这个国家和它的人民永远是第一位的。”
Biden attacks Trump and MAGA Republicans as threat to American democracy
President Joe Biden, in a rare prime-time speech, condemned Donald Trump and his "MAGA Republicans" as he urged the nation to unite against threats to American democracy.
Biden took the stage shortly after 8 p.m. on Thursday at Independence Historical Park in Philadelphia, where several hundred people were sitting in white lawn chairs and Independence Hall's facade was lit up in red and blue.
"This is where the United States Constitution was written and debated," Biden said. "This is where we set in motion the most extraordinary experiment of self government the world has ever known."
"But as I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault," he continued. "We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise. So, tonight, I've come to this place where it all began, to speak as plainly as I can to the nation about the threats we face, about the power we have in our hands to meet these threats and about the incredible future that lies in front of us if only we choose it."
The president mentioned his Oval Office predecessor by name as he assailed Republicans who refuse to accept the 2020 election results, defend those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 or want to strip away abortion rights and other privacy concerns.
"Too much of what's happening in our country today is not normal," he said. "Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic."
Biden made a distinction between the so-called MAGA Republicans and other conservatives, stating "not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology."
"I know, because I've been able to work with these mainstream Republicans," he said. "But there's no question that the Republican party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans and that is a threat to this country."
Biden's urgent rhetoric mirrors his 2020 messaging, in which he presented himself as a clear contrast to Trump and the race itself as an inflection point for the nation.
He made that comparison again Thursday, telling the crowd: "Now America must choose to move forward or to move backward, to build a future obsessed about the past, to be a nation of hope, unity, and optimism or a nation of fear, division and of darkness."
Administration officials had teased Biden's speech as an extension of his "soul of the nation" message, which first emerged in 2017 after white supremacists clashed with counter protesters in Charlottesville, West Virginia -- the incident Biden said inspired him to run for president.
Biden on Thursday said all Americans are called by "duty and conscience to confront extremists" and to reject political violence.
"We are still at our core a democracy, and yet, history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy," he said.
Biden's appearance in Philadelphia is his second of three stops in the battleground state of Pennsylvania this week alone.
At Wilkes University, where made the case Tuesday for his administration's plan for policing and crime prevention, Biden went after MAGA Republicans for their response to the Jan. 6 attack and the FBI search at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
"For God's sake, whose side are you on? Whose side are you on?" a fired-up Biden asked.
The GOP issued a preemptive rebuttal of Biden's remarks, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaking in Scranton (Biden's hometown) just hours before the president took the stage in Philadelphia.
McCarthy criticized Democrats on inflation, crime and the border before demanding Biden "apologize for slandering tens of millions of Americans as fascists" after the president previously described the ideology being adopted by MAGA Republicans as "semi-facism."
"What Joe Biden doesn't understand is that the soul of America is the tens of millions of hard working people, loving families, and law-abiding citizens whom he vilified for simply wanting a stronger, safer, and more prosperous country," McCarthy said.
"The soul of America is not the ruling class in Washington, it is the law-abiding, tax-paying American citizen," McCarthy said. "The soul of America is our determination to get up and go to work everyday, provide for our families, to love our children, be involved in their education and ensure that this nation and its people always come first."
