US President Joe Biden warned on Friday, January 5, that Donald Trump's efforts to retake the White House in 2024 pose a serious threat to the United States. In a campaign speech on the eve of the third anniversary of the attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump's supporters, the incumbent American president also accused him of condoning “political violence” and using rhetoric from “Nazi Germany.” He portrayed the election as a choice between a man obsessed “with the past” and his own interests (Donald Trump) and another who only cares about “America” and “the future” (even himself). .
The former president, a big Republican favorite, “is willing to sacrifice our democracy to gain power,” the Democratic president criticized near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. “He's talking about poisoning the blood of Americans, using the exact same language that was used in Nazi Germany,” continued Joe Biden, 81, who is tied with or close behind Donald Trump in recent polls lies.
“Trump and his MAGA supporters [Make America Great Again, slogan phare du milliardaire républicain] “They not only tolerate political violence, they laugh at it,” Joe Biden denounced again on Friday.
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Offensively, Joe Biden spoke at length about the violence of January 6, “a day forever etched in our minds because it was that day when we almost lost America.” The attack on the Capitol remains controversial in the United States: A quarter of Americans believe, without evidence, that the FBI was behind it, according to a Washington Post and University of Maryland poll released this week. Hence the fact that it is “the most urgent question of our time”. [soit] to know whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause,” he said. “That’s what the 2024 election is about.”
“Let’s be clear about the 2020 election (…). “I won the election, he was the loser,” said Joe Biden to applause, presenting himself as the guardian of American democracy, while the Republican real estate tycoon still assures without a shred of evidence that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. “We all know who Donald Trump is. The question we must answer is: Who are we? ” he said, urging voters to mobilize.
A presidential election campaign that is considered slow
The president was scheduled to deliver his speech on Saturday, three years to the day after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump trying to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's victory, but the date was moved up to Friday due to a storm forecast.
A Trump spokesman, Steven Cheung, immediately responded that Biden was “the real threat to democracy.” He accused him of “using the government as a weapon to attack his main political opponent” and interfering in the election, citing the numerous cases surrounding Donald Trump in court. And during a rally in Iowa, Donald Trump accused his Democratic rival of “stoking fears” and called the incumbent president's campaign rally “pathetic.” During his last election campaign in 2020, Joe Biden described his duel with Donald Trump as a “battle for the soul of America”.
The location chosen by the Democrat for his speech on Friday is symbolic. Valley Forge is where George Washington, later the first President of the United States, gathered the American forces that fought the British Empire nearly 250 years ago.
“We chose Valley Forge because George Washington united the colonies there,” said deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks. “Then he became president and laid the foundation for the peaceful transition of power – something that Donald Trump and the Republicans rejected. »
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This desire to speed up Joe Biden's campaign comes amid criticism from some Democrats who believe it started too slowly. The president failed to convince voters that despite better-than-expected jobs numbers Friday, the economy was recovering and prices remained “still too high for too many Americans,” he said, he admitted in a news release.
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Democrats in trouble
Immigration at the Mexican border and support for Israel's war against Hamas are dividing the Democratic Party. Joe Biden's refusal to mention Donald Trump's multiple affairs, lest he appear to have influence over the justice system, also deprived him of one of his most important weapons against the Republican billionaire.
But the American president's main problem remains his age. His few slip-ups and speech errors are scrutinized closely. He has the worst popularity rating for an incumbent president in the month of December before an election.
Joe Biden's first campaign clip, released on Thursday and airing for the first time on television on Saturday, warns of the “extreme” threat to democracy by broadcasting images of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “It was a terrible thing “Look,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday about the attack on Congress. “The President will continue to speak out and speak out on this. »
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