President Joe Biden warned Friday that Donald Trump’s efforts to retake the White House in 2024 pose a grave threat to the country, the day before the third anniversary of the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol by then-President Trump’s supporters aiming to keep him in power.
Quick Read
- Biden’s Speech on Jan. 6 Anniversary: President Biden marked the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. In his speech, he warned that Trump, his likely opponent in the 2024 election, poses a threat to America’s democratic values.
- Biden’s Warning: President Biden warned that Donald Trump’s potential 2024 presidential run poses a significant threat to the United States, especially in the context of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
- Speech Location and Historical Reference: Biden spoke near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, drawing parallels between the challenges faced by George Washington and the Continental Army and the current state of American democracy.
- Biden’s View on the Presidential Race: Biden emphasized that the upcoming presidential race, likely against Trump, is crucial for the survival of American democracy.
- Recalling Jan. 6 Capitol Attack: Biden described Trump’s role in inciting the Capitol attack, where Trump supporters violently disrupted the Electoral College vote count, resulting in injuries to over 100 police officers and multiple deaths.
- Trump’s Response to Rioters: Biden criticized Trump for calling the insurrectionists ‘patriots’ and promising them pardons if he returns to office.
- Casualties of the Riot: Biden mentioned the deaths associated with the riot, including police officers, a woman shot by police, and Trump supporters who suffered medical emergencies.
- Trump’s Efforts to Rewrite History: Biden accused Trump of attempting to alter the narrative of Jan. 6 to subvert the election results.
- Trump’s Legal Challenges: Trump, facing multiple criminal charges related to his actions, claims that Biden and Democrats are using the legal system to undermine democracy.
- Biden’s Critique of Trump’s Campaign: Biden asserted that Trump’s campaign is self-centered, vengeful, and focused on the past rather than America’s future.
- Biden’s Visit to Valley Forge: Before his speech, Biden and his wife Jill honored the troops of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge National Arch with a wreath-laying ceremony.
- Contrasting Washington and Trump: Biden compared George Washington’s decision to relinquish power to Trump’s reluctance to concede the election, highlighting the difference in their approaches to leadership.
- Polarized Remembering of Jan. 6: Public opinion on Trump’s responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack has become increasingly polarized, with a notable shift in Republican perceptions.
- Biden’s Condemnation of MAGA Voices: Biden criticized MAGA supporters who have abandoned their initial criticism of Trump post-Jan. 6, urging Americans to choose democracy over Trump’s vision.
- Previous Jan. 6 Anniversaries: Biden’s past actions on Jan. 6 anniversaries include a speech in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall and awarding civilian honors to those who defended the Capitol.
- Audience of the Speech: The speech was attended by supporters and young people inspired to engage in politics due to the Capitol attack.
- Context of Jan. 6 Attacks: The Jan. 6, 2021 attacks, motivated by Trump contesting his defeat in the 2020 election, resulted in five deaths and injuries to dozens of police officers.
- Biden’s Visit to Valley Forge: Before his speech, Biden visited the historic Valley Forge, reflecting on George Washington’s leadership and contrasting it with Trump’s actions post-2020 election loss.
- Biden’s Campaign Pitch: Biden is positioning himself as the candidate representing traditional democratic governance, contrasting this with what he suggests would be a “dark, uncharted future” under Trump.
- Trump’s Campaign Tactics: Trump, leading the field for the Republican nomination, has countered with an ad campaign portraying Biden as “the true destroyer of democracy.” His campaign continues despite facing charges related to election interference.
- Political Landscape and Public Opinion: The political environment is highly polarized, and it’s uncertain how much impact Biden’s speeches will have. Trump, despite the charges and controversies, maintains a marginal lead over Biden in recent polls.
- Preparations for Biden’s Speech: Biden consulted with historians and scholars about threats to American democracy, and the audience for his speech included people affected by election denialism and the events of Jan. 6.
- Trump’s Upcoming Campaign Activities: Trump plans to campaign in Iowa, emphasizing his view of the 2024 race as a fight against persecution, and has hinted at authoritarian actions if elected.
- Legal Arguments: Trump’s lawyers have disputed claims of insurrection, arguing his actions and speech are protected under the constitutional right to free speech.
This summary captures the complex dynamics and critical issues defining the early stages of the 2024 presidential race in the United States.
Reuters has the story:
President Joe Biden lambastes Trump for Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a day ‘we nearly lost America’
Newslooks- VALLEY FORGE, Pennsylvania, Jan 5 (Reuters)
President Joe Biden on Friday marked three years since the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol with a warning to voters that Republican Donald Trump, his likely 2024 election opponent, is a threat to the country’s standing as a free democracy.
Trump, president from 2017 to 2021, who is leading the field for the Republican nomination for president, contested his defeat in the 2020 election, prompting thousands of his supporters to attack the U.S Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The failed bid to stop formal certification of the result killed five people and injured dozens of police officers.
Before his speech at a community college in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, Biden took a tour of the Valley Forge site of George Washington’s Revolutionary War-era winter headquarters in the bitterly cold months of late 1777 and early 1778.
Biden compared Trump’s bid to hang on to power despite his 2020 loss to Washington, who stepped down willingly after two terms as he first U.S. president.
“George Washington was at the height of his power having just defeated the most powerful empire on Earth. He could have held onto that power as long as he wanted. But that wasn’t the America he and the American troops of Valley Forge had fought for,” Biden said, according to speech excerpts released by his campaign.
“In America, our leaders don’t hold on to power relentlessly. Our leaders return power to the people – willingly. You do your duty. You serve your country. And ours is a country worthy of service. We are not perfect, but at our best, we face head on the good, the bad, the truth of who we are. That’s what great nations do, and we are a great nation – the greatest of nations,” he said.
Biden, a Democrat, was kicking off his campaign in 2024 with the pitch that he represents a continuation of the style of democratic government Americans have grown up with and that a vote for Trump would be a leap into a dark, uncharted future.
Biden made his appearance a day before the Jan. 6 anniversary to avoid a forecast winter storm.
Ahead of Biden’s speech, the Trump campaign released an ad accusing Biden of being “the true destroyer of democracy” citing special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s actions on Jan. 6.
Smith, a veteran prosecutor known for pursuing mob bosses, has charged Trump with conspiring to illegally subvert the results of the 2020 election.
The ad said Biden was attempting “to justify his push to imprison his leading political rival and deprive Americans of their right to choose their next president through corrupt political lawfare.”
Biden warned Friday that Donald Trump’s efforts to retake the White House in 2024 pose a grave threat to the country, the day before the third anniversary of the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol by then-President Trump’s supporters aiming to keep him in power.
Speaking near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington and the Continental Army spent a bleak winter nearly 250 years ago, Biden said that Jan. 6 2021, marked a moment where “we nearly lost America — lost it all.” He said the presidential race — a likely rematch with Trump, who is the far and away GOP frontrunner — is “all about” whether American democracy will survive.
“We all know who Donald Trump is,” Biden said. “The question we have to answer is who are we?”
Biden laid out Trump’s role in the Capitol attack, as a mob of the Republican’s supporters overran the building while lawmakers were counting Electoral College votes that certified Democrat Biden’s win. More than 100 police officers were bloodied, beaten and attacked by the rioters who overwhelmed authorities to break into the building.
“What’s Trump done? He’s called these insurrectionists ‘patriots,’” Biden said, “and he promised to pardon them if he returns to office.” He excoriated Trump for “glorifying” rather than condemning political violence
At least nine people who were at the Capitol that day died during or after the rioting, including several officers who died of suicide, a woman who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber, and three other Trump supporters who authorities said suffered medical emergencies.
Biden said that by “trying to rewrite the facts of Jan. 6, Trump is trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election.”
Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden and three other felony cases, argues that Biden and top Democrats are themselves seeking to undermine democracy by using the legal system to thwart the campaign of his chief rival.
“Donald Trump’s campaign is about him,” Biden said, saying it was Trump’s aim to get retribution on his political enemies. “Not America. Not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future.”
He added: “There’s no confusion about who Trump is or what he intends to do.”
Before his remarks, Biden, joined by his wife Jill, participated in a wreath laying ceremony at Valley Forge National Arch, which honors the troops who camped there from December 1777 to June 1778. He also toured the home that served as Washington’s headquarters.
Biden invoked Washington’s decision to resign his commission as the leader of the Continental Army after American independence was won — and the painting commemorating that moment that resides in the Capitol Rotunda — to cast Trump as unworthy of Washington’s legacy.
“He could have held onto that power as long as he wanted,” Biden said of Washington. “But that wasn’t the America he and the American troops of Valley Forge had fought for. In America, our leaders don’t hold on to power relentlessly. Our leaders return power to the people – willingly.”
Although the chaos of Jan. 6 came down on members of both political parties, it is being remembered in a largely polarized fashion now, like other aspects of political life in a divided country.
In the days after the attack, 52% of U.S. adults said Trump bore a lot of responsibility for Jan. 6, according to the Pew Research Center. By early 2022, that had declined to 43%. The number of Americans who said Trump bore no responsibility increased from 24% in 2021 to 32% in 2022.
A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released this week found that about 7 in 10 Republicans say too much is being made of the attack. Just 18% of GOP supporters say that protesters who entered the Capitol were “mostly violent,” down from 26% in 2021, while 77% of Democrats and 54% of independents say the protesters were mostly violent, essentially unchanged from 2021.
Biden said that “politics, fear, money” have led many Republicans to abandon their criticism of Trump after the Jan. 6 attack.
“These MAGA voices who know the truth about Trump and Jan. 6th have abandoned the truth and abandoned democracy,” Biden said. “They’ve made their choice. Now the rest of us – Democrats, Independents, mainstream Republicans – we have to make our choice. I know mine. And I believe I know America’s.”
On the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, Biden had stood in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall, a historic spot where the House of Representatives used to meet before the Civil War. On Jan. 6, rioters filled the area, some looking for lawmakers who had run for cover.
“They weren’t looking to uphold the will of the people,” Biden said of the rioters. “They were looking to deny the will of the people.”
On the second anniversary, Biden presented the nation’s second highest civilian award to 12 people who were involved in defending the Capitol during the attack.
Friday’s appearance included supporters and young people motivated by the attack to get involved in politics, campaign advisers said.
As president, Biden has warned about the future of U.S. democracy before, including on the first anniversary of Jan. 6, and in a fiery Sept. 2022 speech where he called Trump and his Republican followers extremists who threatened to take the country backward.
Republicans challenging Trump in the 2024 nominating contest have mostly steered clear of criticizing Trump’s actions on that day, as opinion polls show Republican voters are less likely to blame Trump for his actions on Jan. 6 than they were three years ago.
Whether Biden’s Friday speech will make an impact 10 months before Election Day – in a politically polarized country where voters get news and information from wildly different sources – remains to be seen.
The 2024 race is expected to be closely contested, and Biden aides see Pennsylvania, home to Biden’s Scranton birthplace, as a must-win state. He won in 2020 with 50.01% of the vote. In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania with 48.58% of the vote.
Biden’s arguments have done little to soothe his own supporters’ concerns about the state of the economy or his age, 81.
Trump, 77, holds a marginal, two-point lead in a head-to-head matchup with Biden, 38% to 36%, with 26% of respondents saying they were unsure or might vote for someone else, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Biden prepared for the long-planned speech by inviting a group of historians and scholars to the White House for a wide-ranging conversation on the threats to American democracy.
The audience is expected to include people directly affected by “election denialism and the events of Jan. 6,” according to a person familiar with the planning of the speech.
TRUMP ON THE TRAIL
Trump has portrayed the 2024 race in similarly existential terms, calling his criminal trials a persecution and describing Biden as a crook.
Despite facing state and federal charges over election interference, Trump in recent months has teased acting as a dictator on “day one” and pledged to investigate, incarcerate and otherwise take revenge on his political opponents.
The Republican frontrunner is expected to spend Saturday’s anniversary campaigning with rallies in Iowa, which hosts the first Republican nominating contest of the presidential race on Jan. 15. His leading opponents have largely avoided raising the Jan. 6 attack or Trump’s role in it.
Lawyers for Trump have disputed that he engaged in insurrection and argued that his remarks to supporters on the day of the 2021 riot were protected by his constitutional right to free speech.
