At a symbolic location linked to the Revolutionary War and on the eve of a new anniversary of the mob attack on the Capitol, the president reiterated that his eventual Republican rival was willing to “sacrifice democracy” to gain power. In the polls, the Democratic leader has chosen the tycoon as his opponent, although the opposition will not start the primaries to choose a candidate until January 15 in Iowa.
Agencies
Saturday, January 6, 2024
On the eve of a new anniversary of the mob attack on the Capitol and the official launch of his campaign for re-election in the 2024 elections, United States President Joe Biden yesterday accused his predecessor Donald Trump of using Nazism in his political messages. Germany reiterated and made clear that an eventual Republican victory would pose a threat to democracy
“At the beginning of the election year, we must be clear: democracy is at stake. Your freedom is at stake. “American democracy will continue to be the primary concern of my presidency,” Biden said near Philadelphia in the first speech of his 2024 campaign.
Trump “is willing to sacrifice our democracy to take power,” the 81-year-old Democrat said of his likely Republican rival.
January 6, three years ago, “is a day burned into our memory because we almost lost the United States.” Is democracy still a sacred cause? This is the most pressing question of our time. “Trump’s campaign is about him, not the country,” he said.
Biden chose a symbolic location for his speech near Valley Forge, the historic site where George Washington rallied American forces nearly 250 years ago during the Revolutionary War.
He said that former President Trump, who has already been impeached twice by the judiciary, failed to prevent the mob attack on the Capitol in 2021 and blamed the tycoon and his supporters ahead of the 2024 vote to continue to engage in political violence.
“It's about the poisoned blood of Americans and reflects the exact same language used in Nazi Germany,” said Biden, who was greeted by his supporters with calls for “four more years.”
For Biden, “Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future.” “He is willing to sacrifice our democracy to seize power,” he said in his speech at a former independence battleground in the state of Pennsylvania.
Biden's speech marked an aggressive start to the year, as recent polls put him behind or on par with Trump, the man he defeated in 2020.
Symbolism. Trump was impeached but acquitted over the January 6 riots. The 77-year-old tycoon is now facing criminal charges on charges of attempting to rig the 2020 election.
The US states of Colorado and Maine have banned him from participating in the presidential primaries on the grounds that he took part in an insurrection over the events at the Capitol. Trump has appealed both rulings.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung immediately responded to the speech, saying: “Biden is the real threat to democracy, using the government as a weapon to persecute his main political opponent and interfere in the 2024 election.”
At Valley Forge, where Washington rallied American forces against British colonial rulers during the harsh winter of 1777-78, Biden attended a wreath-laying ceremony and visited a cabin used by America's first president.
Biden's speech was scheduled for today but was moved up a day because of an approaching winter storm.
The president's attack on Trump came after some Democrats criticized Biden's campaign for getting off to a slow start. Biden is trailing Trump in some polls and also has the worst approval rating of any modern president at this stage of his term.
The president has failed to convince voters that the economy is improving. Despite stronger job growth in the United States in December, he acknowledged in a statement yesterday that “some prices remain too high for too many Americans.”
Migration remains another major issue as his party is divided over his support for Israel's war against Hamas and Congress blocks his attempt to get more money for Ukraine.
But perhaps Biden's greatest vulnerability is his age: As the oldest president in American history, he has suffered a series of stumbles and verbal gaffes. “If the election were held tomorrow, President Biden would lose,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
However, the speech in Pennsylvania showed that Biden's campaign is now headed to a direct election between him and Trump, even though the fight for the Republican nomination does not begin until the Iowa caucuses on January 15.
Biden's first TV ad of the year this week warned of an “extremist” threat to democracy and showed footage of the attack on the Capitol set to dramatic music.