To Trump Supporters, Biden is the Unique Threat to Democracy
If everybody's a fascist, then nobody's a fascist.
In a New York Times/Siena College survey released on April 13 showing the U.S. presidential race in a dead heat, pollsters asked respondents whether they thought Donald Trump and Joe Biden were unique threats to democracy. Trump refused to accept his loss in the 2020 presidential election, encouraged his supporters to try to overturn the results of the election on January 6, 2021, and has laid the groundwork to reject the 2024 election results should he lose. It's not surprising, then, that 46 percent overall said Trump was bad for democracy, and 43 percent said that he was a unique threat to democracy. (The poll showed 46 percent voting for Biden and 47 percent voting for Trump.)
However, what was stranger is that a significant minority of respondents saw Joe Biden as a unique threat to democracy. 39 percent overall said that Biden was bad for democracy, and 30 percent said that the president was a unique threat to democracy. The numbers are overall lower than Trump's, but they are still significant. About two-thirds of Trump supporters saw Biden as a unique threat to democracy.
Where does this belief come from? Trump and his allies have been saying it all the time. It is part of an overall pattern by Trump to accuse his opponents of whatever he is accused of. If both he and Biden are threats to democracy, then everybody is a threat to democracy. In December, Trump called Biden a "destroyer of American democracy," citing ultimately unsuccessful efforts -- which Biden himself played no role in -- to get him disqualified from state ballots under the 14th Amendment for his role in the January 6 insurrection. Earlier this month at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump said that he "heard someone" say that if he doesn't win, it "may be the last election the country ever has…Joe Biden is a threat to democracy."
Similarly, in November, Trump echoed fascist leaders like Hitler and Mussolini by calling his enemies "vermin." In that very speech, he promised to "root out…fascists," and in February said Biden was surrounded by some "very bad fascists." The aim of this rhetoric is to make everyone a fascist so everyone (or no one) is a fascist. Trump isn't the only leader using this tactic: while violating international law in invading Ukraine and committing genocide, Putin has accused the West of violating international law and baselessly accused Ukrainians of committing genocide against Russians.
Trump's talking point that Biden is the bigger threat to democracy was picked up by third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has relentlessly used his platform to spread misinformation. In a recent interview with CNN, the outspoken anti-vaccine activist said that "Biden is the much worse threat to democracy" because of his administration's efforts to have social media companies curtail COVID-19 misinformation. The claim was nonsensical: the Biden administration merely requested companies to moderate misinformation. However, Trump repeatedly lied to his followers that the election was stolen and venerated people who used violence to try to overturn the election.
It is tempting to dismiss this "I'm rubber, you're glue" argumentative style as merely crude deflection. After all, you might have last heard it in the schoolyard. However, this rhetoric could have real consequences. According to recent public opinion research from the University of Chicago, approximately 18 million Americans believe that "the use of force is justified to restore Donald Trump to the presidency." It's likely that many of these people believe that Biden is the real threat to democracy.
In a speech in March, Trump warned of a "bloodbath" if he loses. After an outcry, he and his supporters tried to claim that his words were taken out of context. Earlier this month, he accused Biden of creating a "bloodbath" at the U.S.-Mexico border. It was part of the same tactic: if both candidates are causing "bloodbaths," then everybody or nobody is. But believe him when he said it the first time.