Biden’s divisive democracy speech allegedly authored by Vanderbilt professor
Johnathan Turley tweeted that a Vanderbilt University professor was reportedly one of the authors of Biden’s speech in which he accused 'MAGA Republicans' of being a threat to democracy.
The professor in question has a history of anti-Republican rhetoric.
President Joe Biden’s Sept. 1 speech, condemned by conservatives as being one of the most divisive remarks delivered by a sitting president, was allegedly penned in part by a Vanderbilt professor.
Jon Meacham, a Vanderbilt University professor of political science and co-chair of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and Democracy, was one of the authors of the speech, according to Jonathan Turley, a Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University
Professor and NBC analyst Jon Meacham was reportedly one of the authors of Biden’s controversial MAGA speech. https://t.co/5PKoGZapEC If so, the inflammatory rhetoric is hardly surprising. Meacham has called all Trump voters as relying on “lizard brains.” https://t.co/gqi6io0JzH
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) September 4, 2022
During the remarks, Biden pointed the finger at Republican voters as being a “threat” to democracy and labeled the political group as ‘angry’ and “thrive[s] on chaos.”
“But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country,” Biden said.
The inflammatory language referred to “Republicans” 16 times, “MAGA” 13 times, and named former President Donald Trump three times.
Turley exposed in a Sept. 4 Twitter threat that the rhetoric matches Meacham’s history of insulting Republican voters.
Meacham’s alleged role in writing the speech was “hardly surprising,” according to Turley,
In 2020, Meacham alleged that voters who cast their ballot for Trump suffer from “lizard brains” during an NBC segment following the second presidential debate.
“I think Trump did himself good with his base tonight,” Meacham said during the segment. “The question for America is how big that base is. There is a lizard brain in this country. Donald Trump is a product of the White man’s, the anguished, nervous White guy’s lizard brain.”
Turley also drew attention to a 2020 quiz Meacham assigned Vanderbilt students enrolled in his PSCI 1150: U.S. Elections 2020, which asked whether or not the Constitution was “designed to perpetuate white supremacy.”
A student who said that the Constitution was not designed to perpetuate white supremacy was penalized.
Biden’s speech accused Republican lawmakers of attempting to “take this country backwards,” and professed that the ideals were opposite to the “soul of the nation.”
“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love,” he said.
Biden continued, saying, “They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
The speech was criticized by Republican lawmakers and activists, many of whom accused the President of trying to divert the public eye from the administration’s ‘failing’ policies.
Senator Lindsey Graham advised Biden to “[s]top lecturing & change [his] policies before it’s too late.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn alleged Biden used the speech to “distract from the fact his economic agenda caused inflation to reach a historic 40-year high and sent our economy into a recession.”
Campus Reform contacted Vanderbilt, Turley, Graham, and Blackburn for comment. The best effort was made to contact Meacham. This article will be updated accordingly.
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