An angry Joe Biden called Donald Trump “sick” and a “loser” in his first campaign speech of 2024 and said on January 6, “We almost lost America.”
The 80-year-old president launched an indignant attack on his predecessor and potential rival in the 2024 general election from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington organized an army to fight the British in 1777.
Biden condemned the Republican front-runner for his “lies” and for portraying “himself” in his White House campaign's remarks on the third anniversary of the Capitol insurrection.
At his first public event since a Caribbean vacation, Biden said “Democracy is on the ballot” as states across the country launch bids to launch Trump.
He said Trump invoked Nazi Germany when he called his enemies “vermin” and compared him to a dictator who could destroy the United States if re-elected in November.
An angry Joe Biden called Donald Trump “sick” and a “loser” in his first campaign speech of 2024 and said on January 6, “We almost lost America.”
And Biden said Trump was seeking “total war.”
“The competing forces between solidarity and division are constant, but this time it is very different,” he said.
“You can't have a contest … if you view politics as an all-out war rather than a peaceful way to resolve our differences,” Biden said. “Trump wants all-out war.”
Recalling the events of January 6, 2021, he said Trump was “watching TV” while rioters ransacked the Capitol.
Referring to his comments about being “a dictator on day one,” Biden said they were “not meant to be a joke” and mocked his “love letters” to Kim Jong-un.
He branded Trump a threat to the United States and vowed to make “saving” democracy a central theme of his 2024 campaign.
Biden mentioned Trump by name dozens of times in the speech, his most direct attack since the campaign began.
The Democrat is trailing his opponent in several national polls and is still faced with the question of whether he should run for a second term.
But a defiant Biden lashed out at his 77-year-old rival over his “admiration” for Vladimir Putin.
“Trump is trying to steal history, just like he tried to steal the election. “But we knew the truth,” he said.
“I refuse to believe that Americans in 2024 will give up what made us great: liberty and freedom.”
The president called him “sick” for laughing about Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul being attacked with a gavel, forcing him to be hospitalized and undergo a long recovery. It was just one event in a time of threats against public officials. AG Merrick Garland warned Friday that there have been a number of threats against judges, lawmakers and presidential candidates in recent weeks.
Biden pointed to the suspect asking, “Where's Nancy?” as he broke into her San Francisco home, like some of the rioters on Jan. 6.
The 80-year-old president launched an angry attack on his predecessor and potential rival in the 2024 general election at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington organized an army to fight the British in 1777
Biden condemned the Republican front-runner for his “lies” and for portraying “himself” in remarks marking the third anniversary of Jan. 6 in his White House campaign
Regarding Trump's comments that he was “a dictator on day one,” he was not joking and mocked his “love letters” to Kim Jong-un
Joe and Jill Biden walk through George Washington's headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, before his speech
“Trump has exhausted all legal options available to him to overturn the election.” All of them.
“But the legal path simply led Trump back to the truth: that I won the election and he was a loser.”
“Donald Trump’s campaign is about him.” It’s not about America. It's not about you.
“Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future.” He is willing to sacrifice our democracy and put himself in power. “Our campaign is different.”
The president said that America almost “lost everything” on January 6th.
He recalled how gallows were set up outside the Capitol as the crowd chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”
Biden opened the speech with a story of the bleak winter of 1777, when George Washington organized the Continental Army.
America swore that we would never “bow to the king.”
Biden's attacks come as he faces calls from within his own party to address Trump more directly after his repeated trips touting infrastructure legislation and the Inflation Reduction Act coupled with rising inflation and job gains failed to boost his own political poll numbers improve.
His angry focus on democracy and the threat he believes Trump poses to it came at the expense of political issues he failed to mention.
Biden's attacks have focused on his most likely general election rival, as Trump holds a dominant lead over his Republican primary rivals. His distant challengers have refrained from sharp attacks as they try to draw away parts of Trump's base. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Trump would bring “chaos.”
Biden's chosen venue was about more than just appealing to the country's independence war spirit at a time of public skepticism about his handling of foreign policy and Israel's war against Hamas.
Pennsylvania is one of the key battlegrounds Biden wrested from Trump in 2020, and it is crucial to his reelection.
Swing state polls already show Trump in an improved position in the battlegrounds of Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania is one of Biden's most visited states. It is also near his home in Wilmington, where Biden has traveled repeatedly over the weekend and where he planned to settle down Friday evening.