“President Biden Warns of Threat to Democracy in 2024 Campaign Kickoff
In his inaugural campaign speech for the 2024 election, President Joe Biden took a strong stance against his potential opponent, Donald Trump, portraying him as a significant threat to the foundations of American democracy.
Emphasizing the urgency of the matter, Biden declared, “Whether democracy remains America’s sacred cause is the most pressing question of our time, and it defines the essence of the 2024 election.”
Trump swiftly dismissed the speech as “pathetic fear-mongering,” asserting that Biden himself poses a danger to democracy due to what he described as a track record of weakness, incompetence, corruption, and failure.
Biden’s speech revisited a recurring theme in his rhetoric, tying it explicitly to the events of January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters violently stormed the US Capitol to disrupt the certification of Biden’s election victory. The President accused Trump of attempting to rewrite history and attacked his rival by name, countering Trump’s portrayal of the attackers as “patriots” and “political prisoners.”
“He calls those who oppose him vermin. He talks about the blood of Americans being poisoned, echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany,” Biden remarked, directly challenging Trump’s narrative.
Responding to these accusations, the Trump campaign remained silent initially, but senior Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller accused Biden of abandoning issues-based campaigning and using government power against his political opponent.
Biden, who has consistently returned to the theme of preserving democracy, chose Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, as the venue for his speech, a location with historical significance in the American Revolutionary War. The campaign strategically shifted focus to democracy after economic agenda-centered efforts failed to boost Biden’s poll numbers.
By emphasizing the contrast between his commitment to democratic values and Trump’s perceived threats, Biden aims to recreate the success of the Democrats in the 2022 midterms, where they capitalized on the controversy surrounding pro-Trump Republicans who questioned the legitimacy of US elections.
Ashley Etienne, a former Biden 2020 senior campaign adviser, commented on the strategy, stating, “There’s nothing more foundational to who we are than democracy. It’s a winning message that has facilitated this incredibly broad coalition of voters.”
Recent polls reveal a stark partisan divide in Americans’ views of the Capitol riot, with Republicans less likely to perceive it as a violent attack. A notable percentage also believes in a conspiracy theory suggesting FBI involvement rather than Trump supporters initiating the riot, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll.”