Biden defends heckler who interrupted his speech shouting into a megaphone: ‘They’re entitled to be outrageous’

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President Joe Biden’s speech, which he called “The Soul of the Union,” addressing the ongoing threats to American democracy by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans was met with hecklers in the crowd shouting, “Fuck Joe Biden!.”

The chants from audience members attending the event at Independence Hall in Philadelphia could be heard through the video news feed and seemed to throw the president off his train of thought. But he defended them.

“Look, our democracy isn’t perfect. It always has been. Notwithstanding those folks you hear on the other side there,” Biden said. “They’re entitled to be outrageous. This is a democracy.”

With a dramatic backdrop of red light hues, two Marines, and the American flag behind him, Biden said that Trump’s influence on the GOP is a menace to the “very soul of this country.” 

Biden’s choice of set-design is facing criticism as conservatives like Ben Shapiro, host of the “The Ben Shapiro Show” and Fox News host Tucker Carlson liken the image to those of dictators like Adolf Hitler. Carlson said, it was a “blood-red Nazi background.”

Trump went off on Biden for his criticism of him and his supporters on the social media network Truth Social. He even went so far as to say Biden was threatening military force.

“If you look at the words and meaning of the awkward and angry Biden speech tonight, he threatened America, including with the possible use of military force,” the former president posted. “He must be insane, or suffering from late stage dementia!”

In another post on the site Trump wrote, “Someone should explain to Joe Biden, slowly but passionately, that MAGA means, as powerfully as mere words can get, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! … If he doesn’t want to Make America Great Again, which through words, action, and thought, he doesn’t, then he certainly should not be representing the United States of America!”

Other Trump allies like GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted their criticism of the president’s “angry speech.”

However, Biden’s speech received some indirect support from Democrats like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont who tweeted, “The threats to our democracy could not be clearer, and we must act boldly to protect it.”

Senator Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat, sent out a few tweets commending Biden’s speech.

“Republicans who are complaining about the President’s unfair characterization of MAGA Republicans could help their argument by, for instance, denouncing their party leader’s plan to pardon all the traitors who beat the hell of police officers last January,” one of Murphy’s tweets said.

This speech comes a few days after Biden called out MAGA Republicans who refuse to condemn the violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but say they are supportive of law enforcement.

As claims of stolen elections only continue, Biden said he will not let the American people be overturned by “wild conspiracy theories and baseless evidence-free claims” of election fraud.

“Democracy cannot survive on one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election: Either they win or they were cheated. And that’s where the MAGA Republicans are today,” Biden said.

Biden said he chose to give the speech at Independence Hall because it is the birthplace of the written Constitution. However, American democracy is now under “assault.”

“The MAGA Republicans believe that for them to succeed, everyone else has to fail. They believe America, not like what I believe about America,” Biden said. “I believe America is big enough for all of us to succeed, and that is the nation we’re building, a nation where no one is left behind.”