Biden finally says what needs to be said about the 'big lie'
By Paul Waldman
Columnist
On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Joe Biden gave what might wind up being the most important speech of his career. That’s not only because it took on the central problem of his presidency — the ongoing attack on American democracy and Donald Trump’s role in it — but also because Biden was more clear and emphatic on this subject than he has ever been before.
While it had been reported that he would discuss the vital voting rights legislation now in Congress, Biden made the wise decision to set that aside for another day. Instead, he focused on the lie that made the insurrection possible and continues to pulse inside our politics like a cancerous tumor: the idea that Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election.
We have been far too easy on those who embrace or even simply tolerate this idea, perhaps because it has completely taken over the Republican Party, and we still approach any question on which Republicans and Democrats disagree as though it must be given an evenhanded, both-sides treatment.
That has to end, and what many journalists do — simply point out the fact that Biden won the election when quoting a Republican who says otherwise — is not nearly enough. We have to treat those who claim Trump won in precisely the same way we do those who say the Earth is flat or that Hitler had some good ideas. They are not only deluded, they are either participating in, or at the very least directly enabling, an assault on our system of government with terrifying implications for the future. They are the United States’ enemies. And they have to be treated that way.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/06/biden-big-lie/
