Biden embraces bully pulpit as he escalates fight against Trump and GOP over Russia

CNN
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President Joe Biden is embracing his bully pulpit as he calls out resistance from former President Donald Trump and Republicans on Ukraine and Russia.

The tactic – which is playing out mostly in off-camera fundraisers and in public events – has become more pronounced in recent days as the president has latched on to House Republicans’ refusal to approve additional aid for Ukraine and Donald Trump’s refusal to condemn Russia for the death of Alexey Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s top critic.

The president has turned up the heat on Trump and Republicans in California this week in a series of fundraisers, venues where the president tends to speak a bit more freely and bluntly.

At a San Francisco fundraiser Wednesday, Biden referred to Putin as a “crazy SOB” and said Trump’s comments on Navalny were confounding.

“He’s comparing himself to Navalny and saying that because our country’s become a communist country, he was persecuted, just like Navalny was persecuted,” Biden said. “Where the hell does this comes from? If I stood here 10 to 15 years ago and said all this, you’d all think I should be committed.”

The bully pulpit approach comes as the president is eager to put Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric front and center as the 2024 race heats up. Biden has directed his senior campaign team to more aggressively call out the “crazy s***” Trump says.

In repeatedly assailing Trump and his party from the White House, Biden also hopes to illustrate the stakes of the upcoming election and demonstrate his own efforts to unite the west against Russian aggression. House Republicans have scuttled efforts to pass a bipartisan border security bill and additional assistance for Ukraine – both at Trump’s urging.

“Look at what they are doing with the national security supplemental bill that provides assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Palestinian people. Nothing. Not a single thing. Why? Because that’s what Donald Trump tells them to do,” Biden told donors at a private fundraiser in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Wednesday, at another high-dollar event in the Bay Area, Biden said the current crop of GOP lawmakers was “worse” than Strom Thurmond, a former Democratic-turned-Republican senator with staunch segregationist views.

“I’ve been a senator since ‘72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond. I’ve served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles,” Biden said.

Biden, who delivered a eulogy for Thurmond and came under fire in the 2020 Democratic primary for touting his past working relationship with segregationists, went on to say, “By the time Strom left – he did terrible things – but by the time he left he had more African American in his staff than any other member in the United States Congress. He voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act.”

“I’m not making him more than he was. But my point is at least you could work with some of these guys,” Biden continued. “Time and again Republicans show they are the party of chaos and party of division.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson responded on social media, saying “Outrageous. The least popular President to seek re-election is now so desperate and so underwater in the polls he’s playing the race card from the bottom of the deck.”

Biden has grown personally incensed over Trump not condemning Putin for Nalvany’s death as well as encouraging the Russian leader to do “whatever the hell they want” to countries not meeting NATO obligations.

The president was “aghast” at Trump’s NATO remark, one official said, and wanted to respond personally. He’s now repeatedly lambasted Trump for the comment, including in a video taped in the White House Roosevelt Room where Biden blasted his predecessor by name – a move he’s typically reserved for private fundraisers and the campaign trail, but which is now playing out with more frequency from White House grounds.

The shift is notable for a president who appeared loathe to even mention Trump by name for the first years of his presidency.

“Trump gave an invitation to Putin to invade some of our ally, NATO allies,” Biden said earlier this month. “No other president in our history has ever bowed down to a Russian dictator. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can: I never will.”
 
Standing beneath a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, the president added, “For God’s sake,…