U.S. Rep. Estes reacts to President Biden's first campaign speech of 2024

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) went onto ‘Washington Watch with Tony Perkins’ on Friday, to give his thoughts on President Joe Biden’s first campaign speech of the election year.

It was specifically noted by Perkins that Biden borrowed a phrase from George Washington when he claimed that “the upcoming presidential election might test whether or not democracy remains a sacred cause for our nation.”

“It’s really interesting that that’s going to be his strategy on a campaign because he can’t run on his record,” Rep. Estes said. “He’s had three years of failure. Whether it’s talking about the inflation that they’ve created. I mean, they’ve even gone out and had to create new statistics for inflation around a six-month inflation act because they’ve been so bad in terms of their numbers. They’ve created an environment where Putin could invade the Ukraine and embolden Iran to go support Hamas in their attack on Israel. They killed and created an incentive in Afghanistan where the terrorists not only took over Afghanistan but were able to kill several servicemen in women in Afghanistan.”

Rep. Estes also said that it’s not surprising they’re trying to “deflect” from this record. He also called it “very hypocritical” for President Biden to talk about threats to democracy.

“His Internal Revenue Service (IRS) won’t go after and charge his son and collect the taxes from him,” Rep. Estes said. “We had to get a court order to actually make that happen. The Department of Justice goes after parents because they want to make sure that their children have a good education. They go after pro-life supporters just because they have a different political view. So, it really is an abysmal record that President Biden has in terms of a threat to democracy on his own avenue.”

Perkins then played a clip from President Biden’s speech.

“This is the first national election since January 6th insurrection placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy since that moment,” Biden said in his speech. “…After all we’ve been through in our history–from Independence to Civil War to two World Wars to a pandemic to insurrection–I refuse to believe that in 2024, we Americans will choose to walk away from what’s made us the greatest nation in history of the world.”

Perkins then questioned Rep. Estes about President Biden’s claim that Americans who don’t vote for him in November are “somehow against freedom, democracy, and these things that make our nation so great.”

Rep. Estes stated that “a vote for Biden is a vote that’s a threat to democracy.”      

“You look at what he’s done with the federal government and how much he’s used that to go after and attacking the average, everyday American citizens who want to raise their kids. Who want to do their job. Who want to focus on the freedoms that they enjoy whether it’s being able to advocate for a political position or not,” Rep. Estes said.