President Biden suggested Tuesday that he would not have sought a second term in office had former President Donald Trump not launched his own campaign to return to the White House.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running. But we cannot let him win,” Mr. Biden said at a campaign fundraiser in Massachusetts.
Mr. Biden has made defeating Mr. Trump and his MAGA movement the centerpiece of his reelection campaign, arguing that his once and likely future opponent poses a threat to American democracy.
Last month, Mr. Biden compared some of Mr. Trump’s recent rhetoric to language used in Nazi Germany. Specifically, Mr. Biden called out Mr. Trump’s referring to his political enemies as “vermin” and saying that illegal immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
In September, Mr. Biden delivered a blistering speech arguing that his predecessor’s verbal attacks on institutions are eroding democracy.
Mr. Biden and his campaign have sharpened their attacks on the GOP presidential nomination frontrunner in recent weeks.
Mr. Trump pushed back this week, offering a forceful rebuttal to Mr. Biden. He told a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that Mr. Biden is the one who poses a threat to the U.S. democracy and that his administration is “full of criminals.”
“If Joe Biden wants to make this race a question of which candidate will defend our democracy and protect our freedoms, and I say to crooked Joe – and he is crooked, the most corrupt president we’ve ever had – we will win that fight and we’re going to win it very big,” Mr. Trump said.
“Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy. Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy,” he said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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