Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody criticized President Joe Biden for his response to the pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on college campuses across the United States. “Where in the world is Joe Biden?” she asked yesterday on X. [NOTE: That afternoon, Biden addressed the protests from the White House — see below.]
Moody attempted to portray what she characterized as the President’s delay as part of a “pattern,” writing: “As people question his astounding silence in the face of universities under siege, a pattern is emerging. In the summer of 2020, it took months for Biden to call cities and towns being burned, stores being looted and cops being attacked ‘riots.’ A real leader would step up and stop this anarchy.”
Thank you to Florida’s MAGA AG for absolutely destroying Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/nX8CV3s0bw
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 3, 2024
Community Notes on X pointed out that Donald Trump was President in 2020. Former Republican prosecutor in Florida and Never-Trumper Ron Filipkowski responded: “Thank you to Florida’s MAGA AG for absolutely destroying Donald Trump.”
[NOTE: Though many commenters, like Filipkowski, slammed Moody for having her presidents mixed up, Moody’s statement doesn’t specifically say that Biden that was president in 2020. What the Attorney General asserts is that Biden — who in the summer of 2020 was the Democratic presidential nominee — didn’t condemn the 2020 protests as “riots.”]
From the Roosevelt Room in the White House, President Biden addressed the protests yesterday after AG Moody’s tweet. Biden said: “We’ve all seen images, and they put to the test two fundamental American principles. The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld.”
He’s literally right here.https://t.co/uKScRiC6mb
— Matt Fleming, Florida Expert (@Matt_Fleming321) May 2, 2024
During the 2020 presidential election, Politico described Moody as “one of Donald Trump’s biggest surrogates” in Florida, reporting that after Biden won the election and Trump refused to concede, Moody “took a leading role in aiding Trump’s attempts to overturn the election.”
Note: In 2009 — 10 years prior to becoming AG — Moody and members of her family (including her father who was a judge) accused Trump of fraud in a federal lawsuit over a Tampa condominium project (Trump Tower Tampa) that was never built. The case was settled in 2011 and Moody has said she cannot discuss it.