President Joe Biden warned Friday that Donald Trump’s efforts to retake the White House in 2024 pose a grave threat to the country, on the eve of the third anniversary of the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Trump aimed at keeping him in power.
Speaking near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington and the Continental Army spent a dark winter nearly 250 years ago, Biden said Jan. 6, 2021, marked a moment when “we almost lost America — lost everything.” He said the presidential race – a likely rematch with Trump, who is by far the Republican Party’s favorite – was “a question” of whether American democracy would survive.
This speech, the president’s first political event of the election year, aimed to clarify the expected choice of voters this fall. Biden, who returned to politics because he felt most capable of defeating Trump in 2020, believes a focus on defending democracy is key to persuading voters to reject Trump again.
“We all know who Donald Trump is,” Biden said. “The question we must answer is who are we?
Biden, presented that of Trump role in the attack on the Capitol, as a crowd of the Republican’s supporters invaded the building while lawmakers counted the Electoral College votes that certified Democrat Biden’s victory. More than 100 police officers were bloodied, beaten and attacked by the rioters who prompted authorities to break into the building.
“What did Trump do? He called these insurrectionists ‘patriots,'” Biden said, “and he promised to pardon them if he returned to power.” » He criticized Trump for “glorifying” rather than condemning political violence.
At least nine people who were at the Capitol that day died during or after the riotsincluding several police officers who committed suicide, a woman who was shot and killed by police while trying to break into the House chamber, and three other Trump supporters who authorities say were suffering from medical emergencies.
Biden said that by “trying to rewrite the facts of January 6, Trump is trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election.”
Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden and three other criminal cases, argues that Biden and leading Democrats itself seeks to undermine democracy by using the justice system to thwart the campaign of its main rival. The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether Trump could be barred from the ballot because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Speaking in Iowa on Friday, Trump accused Biden of “abusing George Washington’s legacy” to attack him and his supporters, adding his own warning about the campaign stakes, saying: ” This election is your last chance to save America.”
Biden, in his remarks, took advantage of Trump’s grievances and his promises of retaliation against his political enemies.
“Donald Trump’s campaign is all about him,” Biden said. “Not America. Not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future.”
He added: “There is no confusion about who Trump is or what he intends to do. »
Before his speech, Biden, joined by his wife Jill, participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Valley Forge National Arch, which honors the troops who camped there from December 1777 to June 1778. He also visited the house that served as Washington’s headquarters.
Biden invoked Washington’s decision to resign his commission as head of the Continental Army after American independence – and the painting commemorating that moment that hangs in the Capitol rotunda – to portray Trump as unworthy of the legacy of Washington.
“He could have held on to that power for as long as he wanted,” Biden said of Washington. “But this was not the America he and the American troops at Valley Forge had fought for. In America, our leaders do not cling to power relentlessly. Our leaders return power to the people – voluntarily.”
Although the chaos of January 6 befell members of both political parties, it remains a largely polarized memory today, like other aspects of political life in a divided country.
