In the first campaign speech of his 2024 re-election bid, President Joe Biden denounced Donald Trump, his likely presidential election opponent, in the starkest terms yet, painting his rival as the protagonist of the January 6, 2021 attack and as a fundamental threat to the “sacred cause” of democracy.
“Trump’s assault on democracy isn’t just part of his past,” Biden said in an impassioned 31-minute speech delivered near historic Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, a day before the third anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol. “It’s what he’s promising for the future.”
“He told the crowd to ‘fight like hell.’ And all hell was unleashed,” Biden said of Trump’s role on January 6.
The president recounted in excruciating detail the shocking events that unfolded as hundreds of Trump supporters attempted to stop the formal certification of the 2020 presidential election: the shattering of doors and assaulting of Capitol Police officers, the makeshift gallows, and “Hang Mike Pence” chants, the rioters yelling “Where’s Nancy [Pelosi]?”, and Trump’s steadfast refusal to condemn the violence.
“We nearly lost America — lost it all,” Biden said in a near-whisper.
On Saturday morning, the Biden campaign released an ad filled with clips of comments Trump has made in the wake of January 6, in which he described the attack as “the most beautiful day” and the attackers as having “love in their heart.”
As Biden attempts to make January 6 and Trump’s ongoing threat to democracy central themes of his re-election bid, recent polling shows that Republicans have become even more sympathetic to Capitol rioters—and more likely to absolve Trump of responsibility—than they were at the time of the insurrection. “As time has gone on, politics, fear, money, all have intervened,” Biden said Friday. “And now these MAGA voices who know the truth about Trump on January 6th have abandoned the truth and abandoned democracy.”
“In trying to rewrite the facts of January 6, Trump is trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election,” the president added. “But we knew the truth because we saw it with our own eyes.”
In addition to recalling Trump’s actions on January 6, Biden’s speech ran through some of the low moments of Trump’s presidency, as well as his violent rhetoric on the campaign trail and promises to enact “revenge” and even install a “dictatorship” if re-elected. “Sometimes, I’m really happy the Irish in me can’t be seen,” Biden said while recounting Trump’s reported comments calling dead soldiers “suckers” and “losers.” (Biden’s late son, Beau Biden, served in Iraq.) “How dare he? Who in God’s name does he think he is?”
Speaking at a campaign rally in Sioux Center, Iowa on Friday, the former president mocked Biden’s speech, calling it “pathetic fear-mongering” meant to shift voters’ attention away from issues like the economy and immigration. Biden “cannot talk about a single issue that matters to hardworking Americans because he has failed you and betrayed you,” Trump said.
The GOP frontrunner went on to downplay yet again the events of January 6, describing the people imprisoned for their role in the attack as “hostages.” “Nobody has been treated ever in history so badly as those people,” Trump said.
Biden’s emphasis on democracy indeed comes as the president has been hobbled by persistently low approval ratings and poor head-to-head polling against Trump, as voters continue to express worries about the Democrat’s age, his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, and the state of the economy.
In his speech, Biden attempted to connect material issues important to voters to the broader theme of democracy. “Yes, we’ll be voting on many issues: on the freedom to vote and have your vote counted, on the freedom of choice, the freedom to have a fair shot, the freedom from fear. And we’ll debate and disagree,” he said. But “without democracy, no progress is possible.”
“Democracy is on the ballot,” the president said. “Your freedom is on the ballot.”
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