According to Wikipedia, this saying refers to a situation in which somebody accuses someone else of a fault which the accuser shares, and therefore is an example of hypocrisy.
Is President Biden a “pot calling the kettle black?” A few weeks ago, when he kicked off his Presidential re-election campaign, he blasted former President Trump, saying that the former President was “a threat to democracy and freedom.” He further dramatically exclaimed: “democracy is on the ballot... this election will determine if democracy can survive in the United States.”
Long time liberal Democrat, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and now an independent candidate for the Presidency, would probably like the above saying. In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, he argued that “President Biden is the much worse threat to democracy, and the reason for that is President Biden is the first candidate in history…that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech, so to censor his opponent." Kennedy pointed to his removal from social media platforms as evidence of the president’s efforts to censor political speech. “He’s weaponizing the federal agencies. Those are real critical threats.”
Suppressing free speech is bad enough, but President Biden and his Democratic allies are going much further – they are trying to protect democracy by changing election rules, and even going to the extreme of trying to keep the President’s political opponents off the ballot. According to respected law professor Jonathan Turley, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is seeking to block third party candidates from ballots — Robert Kennedy Jr., Cornell West, and Jill Stein. Consider the following:
Running for President is enormously expensive, so one way the DNC has tried to stop Kennedy is cutting off his money. In an attempt to get Kennedy off the ballots, the DNC has accused Kennedy’s campaign of receiving an illegal contribution. In turn, Mr. Kennedy has called ballot access laws for independent and third-party candidates “among the worst forms of voter suppression in America today.”
Before the New Hampshire Democratic primary, the DNC sent a letter warning that the process had not been approved and that no delegates or alternates would be awarded based on the results of what they call an “unofficial” primary. In other words, it doesn’t matter who the New Hampshire voters want as President.
In Florida, the Democratic Party only submitted President Biden’s name for the presidential primary, so the election was canceled, and Biden was awarded all of the state’s delegates.
It is easy to see that the President and Democratic political leaders are acting to suppress Democratic challengers to their power via the election process, but they are also trying to keep Republicans off the ballots. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) announced that he will be reintroducing a prior bill with Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Eric Swalwell to disqualify not just Trump but a large number of Republicans from taking office. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) sought to bar 126 members of Congress.
Of course, the biggest effort to protect democracy by keeping political opponents off the ballots was saved for former President Trump himself. Due to the theory that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution barred the former President from seeking the Presidency (because he gave “aid and comfort” to an “insurrection or rebellion”), Democrats and state courts in many states tried to keep him off the ballots (see map below).
Never mind that every citizen, including Trump, is “innocent until proven guilty” in a court of law. Never mind that the former President has not been charged with insurrection or incitement of an insurrection. Never mind that barring Trump from a ballot would be a gross violation of his “due process” rights, which are guaranteed under the Constitution. Fortunately, the US Supreme Court acted swiftly and unanimously reversed the Colorado Supreme Court. As a result, the people can now decide and choose who they want for President. Hurrah for Democracy!
We absolutely agree with Bobby Kennedy Jr. and we think President Biden is a much greater threat to Democracy than the former President. In the next few weeks, he will highlight some of the actions that show the real threat that Joe Biden actually represents.
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