President Joe Biden called a heckler at a rally in Milwaukee an “idiot” on Monday, after the man shouted during the president’s speech.
Biden made his Labor Day appearance in battleground state Wisconsin and delivered a speech at Milwaukee Laborfest, where labor unions and their members gather annually.
Addressing hundreds of leaders and advocates, the president expressed his support for unions and lauded administrative successes. But a lone man in the audience cut in with loud angry remarks, drawing the president’s attention.
“No, no, no, don’t—let him go,” Biden reacted to the interruption. “Look, everybody’s entitled to be an idiot,” the president continued, as the crowd applauded and cheered in approval.
Security soon escorted the man out.
It remains unclear what the heckler was saying, but it is the second time in less than a week that Biden has been forced to respond to protesters.
It comes two months before the 2022 midterms when Republicans remain the favorites to retake the House and possibly the Senate.
Biden has doubled down on his attacks on political rivals, as well as followers of his predecessor, hyping the danger of MAGA-aligned Republicans. He recently described some of his GOP colleagues as advocates of “semi-fascism” and made sweeping accusations against Trump and his allies during his Thursday address in Philadelphia in an effort to paint them as extreme.
Despite Biden saying during the day that “not even a majority of Republicans are MAGA Republicans” and later explaining he doesn’t consider “any Trump supporter a threat,” he claimed the Republican Party is overall “dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.”
