Justice Democrats, a progressive group that has backed 2018 presidential candidates like Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, has come out as a strong opposer of former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential candidacy. After Biden made his announcement on Thursday, the Justice Democrats attacked him for being a part of the party’s “old guard,” which is a person that doesn’t represent the ideals for which the new Democratic Party has to stand for.
According to The Hill, the group said: “The old guard of the Democratic Party failed to stop Trump, and they can’t be counted on to lead the fight against his divide-and-conquer politics today. The party needs new leadership with a bold vision capable of energizing voters in the Democratic base who stayed home in 2016.”
“Democrats are increasingly uniting around progressive populist policies like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, free college, rejecting corporate money, and ending mass incarceration and deportation. We don’t need someone who voted for the Iraq War, for mass incarceration, and for the Bankruptcy Reform Act while voting against gay marriage, reproductive rights, and school desegregation,” they continued.
The Justice Democrats group was founded in January of 2017 by former staffers of Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign. It was also founded by liberal journalists, including the host of “The Young Turks,” Cenk Uygur, and the host of “Secular Talk,” Kyle Kulinski. Seven candidates that were endorsed by the Justice Democrats managed to win during the midterms in 2018. Among those people, include Ocasio-Cortez from New York, Omar from Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts.
The picture the group uses on Twitter for their cover photo includes Pressley, Tlaib, Omar, and Ocasio-Cortez. Biden announced his official candidacy in the 2020 election in a video while quoting the Declaration of Independence and arguing that President Trump is taking away equality for all from the people.
Biden also pointed out Trump’s stance on the riots in Charlottesville in August of 2017, saying: “At that moment I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.” According to the Chicago Tribune, at the time of the riots, Trump said: “You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, and nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now,” in reference to Antifa, the radical left-wing group.
In Biden’s video, he seemed to focus more on the fact that the white nationalists were there blaming Trump for their presence in the process, but never mentioned Antifa’s involvement with the riots. “We are in the battle for the soul of this nation. I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time. But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation — who we are — and I cannot stand by and watch that happen,” said Biden.
While appearing on Fox News Thursday night, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich showed his support and said that he agreed that the future of the United States is at stake in 2020. “I agree with Joe Biden. We are in a battle for the soul of the nation. You have Democrats now who favor killing babies after they’re born. You have Democrats who favor allowing terrorists and bombers to vote while they’re in prison.”
Gingrich continued by saying: “You have Democrats who are for open borders letting anybody in who wants to. You have Democrats who want to take away your right to have private health insurance.”
Gingrich also predicted that Biden will be forced to take a stand against the progressives in the Democratic Party. “This is fight over the nature of America and the future of America, and the choice next year is maybe going to be the widest choice in modern times. If it’s Trump versus the most likely Democrats on their ticket, vowing for the things they claim they favor, I think he’s going to beat them by a surprisingly big margin,” said Gingrich.
