As Biden Appeals for Unity, He Is Called Out for His 'Blue Anon' Problem

President Joe Biden has faced scrutiny from a number of critics following his call for unity after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, with some arguing he is responsible for the current political climate and has garnered his own "Maga-like cult."

The U.S. President addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday, condemning the violence which took place on Saturday, when Trump's ear was shot during an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Biden on Sunday said, "There's no place in America for this kind of violence—for any violence ever. Period, no exceptions. We can't allow this violence to be normalized.

"You know the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated—it's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that.

"Yes, we have deeply felt strong disagreements. The stakes in this election are enormously high. Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy, it's part of human nature. But politics must never be a literal battlefield, and God forbid, a killing field."

Biden critics quickly responded to the message.

"You turned it into a literal battlefield when you tried to throw Trump in prison for 700 years, called him Hitler and a dictator, and nearly got him murdered (on Saturday night)," free-speech activist Philip Anderson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Unless you are going to apologize- SHUT THE F**K UP."

In a separate post, Anderson added, "You and your ret***ed supporters have caused all the extremism and fury."

Former radio and TV host Kurt Schemers also commented on Biden's comments in a post on X, "You lead with the political persecution of Trump. Meaningless words won't change that."

Though generally conservative figures regularly criticize Biden, the backlash has not been exclusive to them.

On Monday, a Democratic op-ed was published in The Guardian accusing Biden of "morphing (the Democratic Party) into a Maga-like cult in front of our eyes."

Journalist Mehdi Hasan, who often writes from the left for the publication, wrote about Democrats and supporters who were defending Biden's widely panned performance in his debate with Trump on June 27.

He said they had been pedaling "'Blue Anon' conspiracy theories", in a what appeared to be a nod to the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, which asserts that the world is run by a secret group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

Hasan wrote: "I have spent the past few weeks watching the Very Online members of the base embracing an endless stream of 'Blue Anon' conspiracy theories, pushed on behalf of the Dear Leader.

"Did Biden deliver a car-crash debate performance live on CNN or ... did CNN's 'carefully considered FRAMING & LIGHTING design' make Biden look older and paler than he was, as one viral tweet (bizarrely) claimed?

"Did the president struggle to make sense in his ABC News interview with George Stephanopolous [sic] or ... was it a result of ABC 'destroying the sound quality in Biden's interview to make him sound bad', as another viral tweet (ridiculously) put it?

"Did the presumptive Democratic nominee take a clear hit in almost every post-debate poll or ... was it actually the case that 'President Biden's poll numbers skyrocketed in swing states and CNN's ratings plummeted', as yet another viral tweet (falsely) declared?"

Hasan went on to quote political strategist Chris Sosa, who warned about "hyper-partisans" who "act like members of a cult because they treat their political party like a religious identity."

Biden has also received praise for his response to the Trump assassination attempt.

The Washington Post's White House Bureau Chief Toluse Olorunnipa and White House reporter Tyler Pager, who wrote that Biden's reputation had been tarnished by the recent image of an "81-year-old president struggling to complete his thoughts at last month's debate," argued that the president's responses to the Trump shooting "were an effort to return to what has long been Biden's core political strength: a reputation for compassion, moderation and maturity."

Several others praised Biden's Oval Office message on social media, with user @ExistentialEnso thanking him "for being a calm voice of reason in a time of strife."

Newsweek has contacted Biden, via his campaign team's press email address, to ask for any response to criticisms he has faced.