Democrats want Biden to replicate their rage
by Amie Parnes and Morgan Chalfant - 07/12/22 5:25 AM ET
Democrats say they are angry, and they want President Biden to be angry, too.
In recent weeks, they’ve watched the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade and at least one conservative justice hint that same-sex marriage and contraception could be next. Then they saw the high court restrict the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to effectively tackle climate change.
They’ve also witnessed the escalation of gun violence despite a small-scale legislative success on gun safety that fell well below what Democrats want to do on that issue.
Biden has addressed each issue, and on Monday at a White House ceremony said he would not rest until winning a new ban on assault weapons.
“I’m determined to ban these weapons again and high-capacity magazines. … I’m not going to stop until we do it,” the president said.
Yet the White House event itself encapsulated the frustration among Democrats toward Biden when the parent of a teenager killed in the 2018 Parkland High School shooting repeatedly interrupted Biden to declare that the legislation approved by Congress — the subject of a “celebration” that day on the White House lawn — wasn’t nearly enough.
Manuel Oliver was eventually escorted out of the event.
Oliver’s anger, to a certain degree, reflects the sentiment among Democrats that Biden hasn’t come close to reflecting their exasperation and rage with his public comments on guns or abortion.
And it all comes at a difficult time for the White House, with The New York Times releasing a poll on Monday that found a stunning 64 percent of Democrats do not want Biden to be their party’s presidential nominee in 2024. It’s a difficult climate, to say the least, for Biden’s party ahead of the midterm elections in November.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3554095-democrats-want-biden-to-replicate-their-rage/
