A day before the third anniversary of the Capitol Riot, President Joe Biden addressed a crowd in Blue Bell, Pa., about the insurrection.
“Donald Trump’s campaign is about him, not America, not you,” said the president. “Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power.”
Currently, former President Trump is the frontrunner to be the GOP candidate in the 2024 election, which would again pit him against Biden for the role of Commander-in-Chief. Although Biden won the 2020 election, Trump has continued to make claims that the election was “stolen” from him, claims that fueled the deadly riot at the Capitol, where participants attempted to prevent a peaceful transfer of power.
“Outside, gallows were erected as the MAGA crowd chanted, ‘Hang Mike Pence,’ referring to Trump’s vice president, Biden said.
Trump’s actions on the day of the riot have resulted in criminal charges – among many for a variety of issues he now faces – and no evidence to back up his claims has surfaced in the years since the election. Still, Trump has pulled ahead of Biden in several recent polls. Biden faces his own challenges, including Americans’ pessimistic view of the economy (despite several indicators that it is going strong), his son Hunter’s legal troubles and an impeachment inquiry.
In his speech Friday, Biden evoked the memory of Valley Forge, where first U.S. President George Washington lead revolutionary troops in 1777.
“His mission was clear. Liberty, not conquest. Freedom, not domination. National independence, not individual glory,” said Biden. “America made a vow. Never again would we bow down to a king.”
More than 200 years later, “we nearly lost America,” during the riot, said Biden. He wants Americans to ask if democracy is still our most sacred cause. He said it is what the upcoming election is all about.
While Trump has attempted to downplay the severity of the riots, the violent demonstration did lead to the deaths of five people, including law enforcement. Biden also noted that 140 police officers were injured.
“[Frist Lady Jill Biden] and I attended the funeral of police officers who died as a result of the events of that day,” he said. The president also reminded the crowd that Trump told the rioters to “fight like hell,” and more than 1,200 of them have now been charged for their participation.
If Trump is elected again, Biden believes that what he terms the former leader’s “assault on democracy” will continue.
“It’s what he’s promising for the future,” said Biden. “He’s being straightforward. He’s not hiding the ball,” adding that, Trump’s “first rally for the 2024 campaign opened with a choir of January 6th insurrectionists singing from prison on a cell phone while images of the January 6th riot played on a big screen behind him.”
Without democracy, America will lose freedom, Biden said. He went on to say that he thinks Trump doesn’t understand the most fundamental truths about the U.S.
“Unlike other nations on Earth, America is not built on ethnicity, religion, geography. We’re the only nation in the history of the world built on an idea – not hyperbole – built on an idea: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal,’” he said.
We still have work to do to live up to it, Biden said. He said a Trump win would basically see the nation walking away from its mission.
“Let me close with this. On that cold winter of 1777, George Washington and his American troops at Valley Forge waged a battle on behalf of a revolutionary idea that everyday people – like where I come from and the vast majority of you – not a king or a dictator – that everyday people can govern themselves without a king or a dictator,” said Biden.
As to be expected, Trump had a starkly different narrative in a Saturday Truth Social post.
“The stakes of this election could not be higher. Under Crooked Joe Biden, our borders have been erased. Millions of illegal aliens are invading from all over the world,” he said. “Our Middle Class is being crushed by Biden’s crippling inflation. Violent criminals are running wild in Democrat-run cities while law enforcement has been weaponized against Christians, conservatives, and people of faith. We have war in Europe, war in the Middle East, China is threatening Taiwan, Iran is inches away from a nuclear bomb, our military has gone woke, and we are teetering on the brink of World War III.”