President Joe Biden, speaking from Philadelphia's Independence and National Historical Park. The speech was titled Battle for the Soul of the Nation. He went about twenty five minutes. He started with the notion that equality and democracy are under assault, and he mentioned Donald Trump by name, and I guess there were many of watchers who thought that may not happen, so somewhat unexpected. He went on to say that Trump and
Magna Republicans are threatening the foundation of the republic. We are not by standards in the ongoing attack on democracy. And he went on to say we are at an inflection point and in it is in our power to stop the assault on American democracy. This is a special edition of Bloomberg Daybreak Asia. I'm Doug Prisoner in New York.
My colleague Brian Curtis in Hong Kong. Brian, Yeah, this was very interesting, and let's bring in Rick Davis, Bloomberg Politics contributor and partner at Stone Court Capital, to dissected. Rick only a modest attempt to laud his own achievements and and really didn't use this as an attempt to target Republican ideals at all. This was really an attempt to ring fence, the MAGA movement and Trump himself. Do
you think he pulled it off? Yeah? I think it was two speeches here, right, one Brian that you describe, which is, you know, hey, these are the Maga Republicans. They are, you know, against democracy. You know, they've been fooled by Donald Trump. You know, they're not the gop of your father is like he's like to say in
the past. But then he contrasts that with his own achievements, right, and the country's moving forward, and I got lower drug prices, I was able to get you know, all these things passed, and we got a fight on abortion and and and and he's kind of pivoted so that there was this part of the speech that was dedicated to his legislative achievements, and then the other part and that was the light, positive part, and then the other part was very dark and and fore voting about you know, the threat to
democracy that Maga Republicans pose. Rick, where is the line between what we call mainstream Republicans and the extremist Well, you know, I think that that that he was trying to draw one right early in the speech he said, you know, not everybody, not all the Republicans are Maga Republicans, um. But he didn't really go into much detail on who
they were or or how he was talking. To my own point of view, just from a political lens, um there there probably are a few, uh, you know, Republicans that are are considered mainstream Republicans and and sort of tolerant of the current party as it stands. But I do think he was really looking at independence and and this kind of you know, sort of setting up the wedge. You know, Independence, don't be drawn into that Republican party.
These are run by MAGA, you know, and they're really outside the mainstream and their extremists and and and what he's trying to do is probably go that fifty percent he got in the general election two years ago, and he needs that to show up on the midterms. He he did make it a point to say quite early that he's not really lead targeting all Republicans, he said, many of whom he had worked with in his long career in the Senate. He really did try to isolate
the MAGA group. We don't know exactly how big it is, I suppose, but I found it a kind of interesting. And you thought that he made a bigger attempt to laud his achievements. I thought that was only sort of a modest attempt. But he did refer to this being the United States, uh, and that the two parties should work together. And yet I think I heard you say earlier this morning on our air that he really didn't reach out to the Republicans with cabinet positions or high positions,
key positions in government. Yeah. I think there was an expectation, considering how much he devoted in the general election his rhetoric to talking about unifying the country and bringing in, you know, a coalition of Americans who would you know, be loyal to the government and to the country and not focused on ideology and and and that never really materialized. I mean, I actually think there were more Democrats and in the Trump cabinet than there are Republicans in the
Biden cabinet. And that being said, his major accomplishments, short of just a couple that he's done just recently through reconciliation, have really been bipartisan accomplishments. This massive bill for infrastructure was done with Republicans, Democrats and lockstep H and many other legislative achievements he's been able to get through. So
he he avoids wedge politics. That's who he is. But I think that's been disappointing to many Democrats who actually want to impose accountability on these Maga Republicans, right They want to prosecute these guys. They don't want to put a you know, handout for them. And and so I do think he's running a little bit counter to his own party's interests, who sort of got a little bit of taste of victory with his election. And I would like to put the Maga Republicans on the trash heap
of history. I had an ear open to see whether or not he would say anything along the lines of conservative Supreme Court that didn't happen. Talk to me Rick about the timing. Is he setting the stage for another term? Is it too early for that to happen? Is this more about the mid terms? He's got to win at his back right now. Yeah, he's got to win in his back. I think Democrats have convinced themselves that they've got a shot at maybe even leveling the playing field
in the House and winning the Senate. Uh and and and and and there's good reason for that right there, pulling data looks good. They've had these great legislative achievements, and so this is I think purely focused on trying to get a ticket through the mid term elections and and hold onto power because they know if that House flips to the Republicans and it doesn't matter by one vote or a hundred votes, then their legislative agenda is gone. Right,
They'll be not able to implement anything. It will turn into all kinds of investigations by Republicans and it'll be chaos, and that will not be good for Biden to think through a second term, right, And so this buys him an option if he's able to to to find success in the mid term elections. And this was all about
what are the stakes of the mid terms. The stakes are you can you can descend into darkness through the magarepublican agenda, or you can stick with me and see these great things I've achieved and we can continue to do it together. Just briefly in twenty seconds. So it sounded like a few moments ago that you were suggesting that the insurrectionists should not be hauled into court. Well, I mean you've noticed, um, he didn't say much about uh, any of the legal activity, right. I mean, he clearly
put the MAGA Republicans on the extreme list. Um, you know, he didn't take the language on fascism that we heard from him earlier. I don't think there's any doubt that the party and in his administration would like to see people who have violated the law, whether it's the President United States or people broke into the Capitol to be prosecuted. But he's done a good job I think as president of staying out of the legal fray and and and
preserving his options for the future. Yeah, that's respecting the Constitution and the rule of laws both anyway, Rick, thanks very much. Rick Davis Bloomberry politics contributor and partner at Stone Court Capital