President Joe Biden delivered a passionate defense of the “sacred cause” of American democracy Friday as he delivered his first campaign speech of 2024, casting likely general election foe Donald Trump as an imminent and unapologetic threat to the way of life America’s revolutionaries fought and died to achieve.
“The choice is clear. Donald Trump’s campaign is about him – not America, not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past – not the future,” Biden said in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, near the Revolutionary War battle site of Valley Forge.
“He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power,” Biden said, presenting Trump as anathema to the values and democratic ideals of George Washington and the men he led into battle in 1777-78.
The speech, scheduled to mark the three years since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, was cast not as a presidential address, as Biden delivered in their first two years since the attack, but as a campaign event.
And the president, who rarely mentioned the name of his predecessor in his first three years in office, frequently uttered Trump’s name repeatedly – and brutally – as he ticked off the bombastic comments and behavior of the man who hopes to rise from two impeachments and four felony indictments to return to the White House.
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Biden reminded the boisterous crowd that Trump himself pledged to be a “dictator” on his first day. He called him a “loser” and, implicitly, a coward for sitting safely in a room at the White House, watching TV while those inspired by Trump engaged in a violent conflict at the Capitol. More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes from that day, and more than 900 have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
Biden called Trump an enemy of law and order, of decorum and of basic decency, growing emotional as he recalled Trump visiting a war cemetery and calling the dead soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” and later laughing about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in their California home.
Using Trump’s own words, Biden talked about how Trump promised “a campaign of revenge and retribution – his words” if he is reelected, how he called for the execution of the nation’s highest ranking military leader and how he showed a video of imprisoned Jan. 6 insurrectionists, singing, at one of his rallies.
“This is like something out of a fairy tale – a bad fairy tale,” Biden said. At one point, the president – who once was caught on tape using a swear word to celebrate the passage of the Affordable care Act – called Trump “a sick …” trailing off before finishing with what might have been an unsuitable word for a presidential address. The crowd hooted and cheered.
“These MAGA voices who know the truth about Trump on Jan. 6 have abandoned the truth and abandoned democracy,” Biden said. “They made their choice. … Now the rest of us have to make our choice.”
The president’s speech marked an aggressive ramping up of his 2024 campaign, accompanied by a new TV spot depicting Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrectionists who followed him as “an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy.”
Three years after the shocking attack on the Capitol, the political divide over what happened that day – and what it meant for democracy – continues. A poll published this week by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland found that a quarter of the public believes the demonstrably false narrative that it is “probably” or “definitely” true that the FBI orchestrated the attack. Republicans (34%) are more likely to hold that belief than Democrats (13%) or independents (30%).
Further, democracy advocates are worried that no matter how well the 2024 elections are run, partisan passions will lead some people to refuse to accept the results. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll this week, in fact, found that 52% of Trump supporters have no confidence that the 2024 results will be accurately counted and reported (81% of Biden backers said they were confident the results would be counted and reported accurately).
David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, said he feared disinformation campaigns could lead people again to non-peaceful actions.
“I’m concerned that disinformation is going to lead supporters of the loser, and perhaps the losing candidates themselves, and grifters, to incite his or her supporters … and to say an election has been stolen,” Becker said in a conference call with reporters this week.
“I have sympathy for those who feel betrayed by the words and lies of the former president,” Becker said. But “they’re not martyrs.”
Trump, too, has made Jan. 6 a part of his campaign, continuing to insist that the election was stolen from him, despite having lost scores of court cases, including ones decided by judges he appointed. The former president has used the episode to tap a sense of overall grievance among his supporters.
Biden made it clear he will use the facts from that day to stop a man he said would undo American democracy.
“Trump is trying to steal history the way he is trying to steal the election,” Biden said in Blue Bell. “We know the truth. We saw it with our own eyes.
“I’ll say it, if he won’t,” the president added. “Political violence is never acceptable in the United States. It has no place in a democracy – none. You can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American.”
