BLUE BELL, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — President Joe Biden was in Montgomery County on Friday for his first big campaign event of 2024.
Biden was originally supposed to speak at Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday, but the campaign event was pushed back a day due to the threat of inclement winter weather in the region.
The president and first lady flew into Wings Field Airport in Blue Bell to visit Valley Forge for a ceremonial wreath-laying Friday to underscore the message of his campaign speech at Montgomery County Community College.
Speaking on the eve of the Jan. 6 insurrection anniversary, Biden recounted the chaos and fear of that day — but the real target of his speech was Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump.
Biden listed Trump's actions to overturn the 2020 election and cited recent Trump quotes about him being a dictator on day one of his presidency and echoing Nazi rhetoric about immigrants.
“Their mission, George Washington declared, was nothing less than a sacred cause. Freedom, democracy, American democracy — whether democracy is still America’s sacred mission is the most important question of our time. It’s what the 2024 election is all about,” Biden said.
Biden drew a contrast with his mission.
“I make this sacred pledge to you, the defense, protection, and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency,” he said.
He said the choice in November is between keeping democracy or losing it.
“Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot.”
Trump will be in Iowa this weekend on the campaign trail. He is ahead of the other Republican contenders — Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Chris Christie — leading up to the first big test of their campaigns, the Iowa Caucus on Jan. 15.
Third anniversary of Jan. 6
More than 100 police officers were bloodied, beaten and attacked by the rioters who overwhelmed authorities to break into the building in an effort to stop the certification of votes for Biden, who had won the 2020 election.
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 whom authorities said suffered medical emergencies.
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.
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 seeking to undermine democracy by using the legal system to thwart the campaign of his chief rival.
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.
On the first anniversary, Biden stood in 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.