President Biden on Friday delivered his first campaign speech of the year and framed the 2024 election as a fight to save American democracy and freedom from former President Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden spoke from a community college in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, about 15 miles from Valley Forge, where George Washington rallied the Continental Army to fight the British Empire nearly 250 years ago.
The remarks also came on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, when a pro-Trump crowd stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Mr. Biden’s election win.
“Today we are here to answer the most important of questions: Is democracy still America’s sacred cause?” Mr. Biden said. “This isn’t rhetorical, academic or hypothetical. Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time. It is what the 2024 election is all about.”
It was Mr. Biden’s most aggressive attack yet against his expected 2024 opponent. Typically, Mr. Biden has refrained from using Mr. Trump’s name, only referring to him as his “predecessor” or “the former guy.” On Friday, he repeatedly called out Mr. Trump by name.
Mr. Biden let loose on the former president, calling him “sick” and “loser” and depicting his supporters as insurrectionists. Mr. Biden also said Mr. Trump’s handling of the Jan. 6 attack was among the “worst derelictions of duty” by a U.S. president.
“He retreated to the White House as America was attacked from within,” Mr. Biden said. “The entire nation watched in horror. The whole world watched in disbelief and Trump did nothing.”
Three years after the Capitol riot, it is an open question how much political traction it holds for Mr. Biden, who is dealing with mounting angst about the U.S. border crisis and a Democratic Party split over the Israel-Hamas war.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Mr. Biden is ignoring the suffering he is causing Americans.
“The soul of America has been crushed under the weight of Joe Biden’s failures,” McDaniel said. “While families can’t pay their bills, children are dying from fentanyl overdoses, terror suspects are crossing the open southern border and Americans are still being held hostage by Hamas, Biden wants to further divide Americans with polarizing rhetoric to distract from his catastrophic policies.”
Some within Mr. Biden’s Democratic Party also criticized him. Dean Phillips, who is seeking to wrestle the Democratic presidential nomination away from Mr. Biden, blasted the speech.
“Joe Biden wants to talk about democracy when he thinks it benefits him politically, but he’s not too interested when he thinks it doesn’t,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Trump has sought to turn the tables on his likely rival, arguing that Mr. Biden is the “destroyer of American democracy.” Echoing the rhetoric of his successor, Mr. Trump has been arguing that voters should view Mr. Trump as a threat to democracy.
During a campaign rally last month, Mr. Trump made his case on why voters should see Mr. Biden as undermining democracy by using the Justice Department against his rival. Mr. Trump faces 91 criminal charges ranging from allegedly mishandling classified documents to the events surrounding Jan. 6.
“He’s been weaponizing the government against his political opponents like a Third World political tyrant,” Mr. Trump told a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Biden and his radical left allies like to pose as standing up as allies of democracy.”
“Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy, Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy,” Mr. Trump continued.
In swing state Pennsylvania, Mr. Biden said if Mr. Trump wins a second term, America should expect their democratic institutions to be under attack.
“Trump’s assault on democracy isn’t just part of his past,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s what he’s promising for the future. He’s being straightforward. He’s not hiding the ball.”
It marked an escalation of attacks on supporters of Mr. Trump, who received 74 million votes in the 2020 election. In four major speeches, Mr. Biden has warned that Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again movement would erode the nation’s values and democratic institutions.
By focusing on Mr. Trump’s loyal political followers, Mr. Biden is hoping to energize voters who are apathetic about a rematch between himself and Mr. Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
It’s also a way to move the conversation away from other issues that haven’t resonated with voters, including Mr. Biden’s economic policies.
On Monday, Mr. Biden will be at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a historically Black church where a white supremacist murdered nine people in 2015. Like Valley Forge, the speech’s backdrop is meant to undermine his campaign’s theme that the nation is battling for “the soul of America” in 2024.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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