On Monday, President Joe Biden said those who want to keep assault weapons would need a much more substantial arsenal to stand a chance. While speaking at the National Action Network’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in Washington, D.C., Biden appeared to deride his conservative colleagues.
“I love my right-wing friends who talk about the tree of liberty is water on the blood of patriots,” said Biden. “If you need to work about taking on the federal government, you need some F-15s. You don’t need an AR-15.”
In his speech, Biden referred back to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in a letter, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.” Jefferson served as America’s third president and principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
“I’m serious. Think about it,” Biden added. “Think about the rationale for this. It’s about money.” The president also said assault weapons serve no “social redeeming value.”
President Biden previously stated that gun-right advocates require a much larger arsenal of weapons to take down the federal government. In July of 2021, Biden said: “You need to have weapons to take on the government; you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons” during a White House speech outlining his plan to combat gun violence.
President falsely claims there are limits to Second Amendment
During the speech, the president falsely claimed there have always been limits to the Second Amendment. “The Second Amendment, from the day it was passed, limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own. You couldn’t buy a cannon.”
“The point is that there has always been the ability to limit — rationally limit — the type of weapon that can be owned and who can own it,” added Biden.
Biden’s claims have been researched and found to be false. However, the president has repeatedly made them over the past few years. Gun regulation on a federal level was first passed in 1934.
Additionally, President Joe Biden blasted the tax agenda of House Republicans on Monday for targeting the new push to revoke new funding for the Internal Revenue Service, replace the income tax with a federal consumption tax, and abolish the federal tax agency.
At the MLK, Jr. Day breakfast in D.C., the president referred to the GOP as “fiscally demented” and pledged to veto any new tax legislation, which is almost certain to fail in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
“Raising taxes on working families, making inflation worse. Let me be clear, if any of these bills happened to reach my desk, I will veto them,” said Biden.
The bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Adrian Smith of Nebraska, would rescind over $70 million in new IRS spending approved as part of the president’s Inflation Reduction Act, including the funds to hire 87,000 new agents. It has been a frequent target of GOP criticism. A 221-210 party-line vote passed the legislation.
