United States President Joe Biden on Monday took a swipe at his “right wing friends” and said those who argue they need assault weapons to fight the government need a much bigger arsenal to stand a chance.
Speaking at the National Action Network’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in Washington, Biden said, “I love my right-wing friends who talk about the tree of liberty is water of the blood of patriots,” he said. “If you need to work on taking on the federal government, you need some F-15s. You don’t need an AR-15,” as reported by Fox News.
Biden was referring to a quote by Thomas Jefferson, who wrote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.”
“I’m serious. Think about it,” Biden added. “Think about the rationale for this. It’s about money.”
The US President also said that the so-called assault weapons serve no “social redeeming value.”
Biden has previously said gun-rights advocates need a much bigger arsenal of weapons to take on the federal government. In July 2021, he 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 to outline his plan to combat gun violence, the Fox News reported.