White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended having uniformed Marines stand behind President Joe Biden as he gave a speech Thursday night calling 45th President Donald Trump and “MAGA forces” a “threat to this country.”

American Military News reports:

During a Friday White House press conference, Jean-Pierre was asked about the decision to use an official taxpayer-funded White House event to give a politically charged speech and why he had uniformed Marines present during the event.

“The way we see it here, and I would argue the way many Americans across the country see it, is standing up for Democracy is not political,” Jean-Pierre said. “Denouncing political violence is not political.”

Throughout the speech, Biden repeatedly denounced political violence while making several references to Trump and his “MAGA Forces” and “MAGA Republicans.”

While Biden specifically denounced political violence he attributed to these MAGA Republicans, he did not mention other instances of political violence like an armed suspect being arrested after threatening to kill conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh earlier this summer or an avowed Bernie Sanders-supporter shooting at a congressional Republican baseball practice in 2017 and wounding Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA).