Hours before President Joe Biden was set to address the nation on the state of U.S. democracy, a U.S. senator from Tennessee blasted the Biden administration for claiming that supporters of former President Donald Trump are somehow a threat to American freedom.

“While the press secretary’s comments are appalling, they aren’t surprising. Democrats and their friends in the liberal media are no strangers to using these over-the-top accusations to silence conservatives,” U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told The Tennessee Star Thursday. “The fact of the matter is that the Biden White House is terrified to have a debate over how their disastrous policies have caused inflation to hit a 40-year high and created a crisis at our southern border, so they’re resorting to scare tactics. Unfortunately for them, it’s not going to work.”

The White House has recently upped its incendiary rhetoric against what it calls “MAGA Republicans,” or supporters of Trump.

That rhetoric reached its most extreme level yet during a Wednesday press briefing.

“The president thinks that there is an extremist threat to our democracy,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during the briefing. “The president has been as clear as he can be on that particular piece, when we talk about a democracy, when we talk about our freedoms. The way that he sees it is that the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican Party. This is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom [and] to our rights.”

Asked whether there was any difference between a Trump-voting Republican and other Republicans, Jean-Pierre refused to answer.

Nearly 75 million Americans voted for Trump in 2020.

Jean-Pierre doubled down on her comments Thursday, saying that the “MAGA agenda” is “one of the most extreme agendas that we have seen.”

During his campaign and inauguration, Biden pledged that his administration would unify Americans.

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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Marsha Blackburn” by Marsha Blackburn