MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Americans celebrated the Fourth of July in all kinds of ways.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It was the 250th anniversary of the United States. New York had so many fireworks they set the Brooklyn Bridge on fire. Other cities dodged extreme heat or thunderstorms and celebrated anyway. In Washington, a white nationalist group marched through the city, as did counterprotesters, while military jets flew over the city for much of the day. I think, Michel, you were watching and listening to that as we went through the day. The D.C. fireworks began very late, delayed by a thunderstorm and by a speech by the president who started after 11 o'clock.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world, only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America.
INSKEEP: The weekend offered contrasting views of America, and NPR's Mara Liasson was watching and listening to much of it. Mara, good morning.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What was your impression of the president's speech?
LIASSON: The president's speech was overtly political. Just like his speech on Friday at Mount Rushmore, he excoriated Democrats, using his latest epithet for them - communists. He's trying to use to his advantage the fact that a handful of members of the Democratic Socialists of America won some primaries, which in deep blue districts in places like New York City may not matter that much, since the districts are likely to elect a Democrat in the general election. But there are many Democrats who are worried that in some swing states and districts, they could be nominating candidates who are too far to the left to win.
So the president and the Republicans are trying to take advantage of this and they're using the communist label as well as some of the positions found on the Democratic Socialists for America website, like defund the police, abolish ICE, free all incarcerated individuals, and they're trying to paint the entire Democratic Party as too far to the left and as communists.
INSKEEP: Well, the highest-profile person on the left in the United States right now is probably Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City, who has focused in his own public presentations on practical governance in New York - and he certainly hasn't been shy about the spotlight - gave his own speech over this holiday weekend. How different was his view of America?
LIASSON: It was very different. Mamdani gave a speech on July 3 at New York City's City Hall to a group of newly naturalized citizens, and his speech really was the opposite of Donald Trump's. He criticized the constant denigration of immigrants. Here's what Mamdani said.
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ZOHRAN MAMDANI: American exceptionalism, the conventional wisdom tells us, makes our freedom a little more free, is how we dug the Erie Canal and irrigated the West, is why children in faraway lands grow up dreaming of one day moving here. And yet the irony is that the story of America has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth that they were anything but exceptional.
LIASSON: Mamdani said that instead, America should continue to be a place of asylum for the persecuted, and he described a kind of patriotism that sees the nation's flaws and embraces dissent.
INSKEEP: Mara, listening to you, you noted that's the alternative view, the alternative view to the administration. But in many of the decades of politics that you've covered, I think that would have been the normal bipartisan view of America - that it's a nation of immigrants, that we work on our flaws.
LIASSON: Right, absolutely. It's almost a nostalgic view, a kind of retro view of what makes America great. But in this case, standing up for immigrants and talking about how they are great contributions to America and actually made America great is now considered the opposition viewpoint.
INSKEEP: NPR's Mara Liasson. Thanks so much.
LIASSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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