Terry Prone: Biden takes a stand against MAGA extremist threat to US democracy

US President, perhaps because he’s been in politics for so long, understands the power of a single, carefully staged speech

Joe Biden staged his speech outside outside the historically-significant Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

When US President Joe Biden makes his first major speech warning about a threat to democracy, the expectation would be that Fox News would rubbish it and CNN would not; CNN wouldn’t necessarily praise the speech, but they’d take it seriously.

In the event, their White House correspondent John Harwood delivered on that expectation. “The core point made in that political speech about a threat to democracy is true,” he told the camera, going on to redefine the discourse in the US, pointing out that journalists there are “brought up to believe there’s two different political parties with different points of view, and we don’t take sides in honest disagreements between them. But that’s not what we are talking about. These are honest disagreements. [However,] the Republican Party right now is led by a dishonest demagogue.”