President Biden says heckler is ‘entitled to be an idiot’ during speech in Milwaukee

President Joe Biden responded bluntly to a heckler during a speech Biden was giving at Milwaukee Laborfest by saying the man is “entitled to be an idiot.”

As the president delivered his remarks in Wisconsin, an audience member began shouting, “You’re a liar!” to which Biden responded, “All right, God love ya.” The man continued to shout, though it is unclear what he was saying. As security moved to remove the man from the audience, the president stopped them.

“…No, no, no.  Don’t — let him — let him go. Let him — he’s — look, everybody is entitled to be an idiot,” Biden said to applause from the audience. “No, no.  Everybody is entitled. Okay?”

The president continued, “Look, extreme MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and our economic security, they embrace political violence …I’m not talking all Republicans, I’m talking about these extreme MAGA Republicans.”

The president has ramped up his rhetoric against so-called MAGA Republicans in recent weeks with the November midterm elections looming.

“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden said at an impassioned speech in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall last week. “They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6 brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger at the throat of our democracy, but they look at it (them) as patriots.”

Biden’s approval rating has ticked up over the last month following a string of policy successes including student loan forgiveness and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Democrats for the first time in the midterm races have a half-point advantage over Republicans currently, according to FiveThirtyEight.