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By Miriam Raftery
January 7, 2024 – A day before the anniversary of the deadly Jan.6,2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, President Joe Biden and his likely campaign opponent Donald Trump presented sharply divergent messages.
In a speech near Valley Forge, Biden spoke of General George Washington crossing the Delaware with patriot soldiers in 1777 to defeat the British and win freedom and democracy—the then radical idea that the people could govern themselves, without a king or dictator. “But if democracy fails, we’ll lose that freedom,” the President said. He warned that Trump has openly announced plans to dismantle our democracy, stating bluntly, “Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot.”
Trump meanwhile posted a video on his social media platform that proclaimed “God created Trump” to be a “shepherd to mankind” who would be “willing to go into the den of vipers, call out the fake news for their tongues as sharp as the serpents” as well as “wrestle the deep state” and “wield a sword.”
The bizarre Messianic messaging adds fuel to the arguments of a growing chorus of Trump’s critics in both Republican and Democratic parties concerned over his pledge to, as Associated Press has reported, be a dictator “only on day one,” calling those who disagree with him “vermin,” pledging to use the Justice Department for “retribution” against his enemies and to arrest political opponents and critics including those in media, as CNN reported. Trump has said he wants to suspend “all rules” including “the Constitution,” as Newsweek reported and FactCheck.org confirmed. He has also said that if reelected, eh would eliminate thousands of civil service jobs and replace them with Trump loyalists, as Politico reported, and has refused to sign a pledge refusing to overthrow the government if he loses, the Washington Post reports. He also voiced support for the death penalty for his own chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for putting “country over party” and speaking out against Trump, Biden noted.
Washington resigned his military commission to become President, refusing calls by some to serve as a monarch. Biden reminded Americans that on January 6, 2021, 246 years after Washington’s victory at Valley Forge, “we nearly lost America...Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time. And it’s what the 2024 election is all about.”
During the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, “for the first time in our history, insurrectionists had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power in America,” Biden said, recalling that they smashed windows, attacked police—some of whom later died as a result, hung gallows, threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence and sought to harm Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Biden blamed Trump’s lies about winning the election for bringing the violent mob to Washington.
Pence, speaking in Iowa this week as the caucuses approach, said his life was threatened during the violent U.S. Capitol attack three years ago, refuted the unsubstantiated claims of former President Donald Trump and encouraging Republicans to choose another candidate in 2024.
“The entire nation watched in horror...and Trump did nothing,” Biden said, noting that Trump’s family, aides, and even some Republican members of Congress pleaded with him to take action, but for several hours, he watched the violence on TV and refused to act in what Biden called “one of the worst derelictions of duty” of any President in history.
Trump lost 60 court cases challenging the 2020 election results, including cases before judges he appointed. He lost every recount, then had his MAGA followers threaten election officials and election workers with violence, such as those in Georgia who won a $148 million judgment against Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Over 1,200 people who participated in the Capitol insurrection have been charged with assault or other crimes, and more than 900 have pled guilty, most sentenced to prison The U.S. Congress also found that the Capitol attack was an “insurrection” in its bipartisan resolution honoring Capitol police officers who fought to protect members of Congress.
Yet Trump has praised these convicted criminals, calling them “patriots” and promising to pardon them if elected. Biden notes that at Trump’s first rally for his 2024 campaign, Trump played a recording by a choir of insurrectionists singing in prison. He also made jokes about a MAGA follower who broke into Pelosi’s house and smashed her husband’s head with a hammer. Trump has also called dead soldiers “losers.
“I think that’s despicable,” Biden said of Trump’s support for violence. “Once again, he’s saying he won’t honor the results of the election if he loses...You can’t love your country only when you win.”
Trump’s video claiming he has been appointed by God did mention several issues, including drilling for oil, “bringing back manufacturing and jobs”, and “securing our borders”.
The Biden administration claims to have created over 800,000 manufacturing jobs.He has approved a five-year plan to increase offshore drilling. While border security remains a challenge, the Biden administration rolled out a program to allow many migrants to apply for asylum in their home countries and is currently negotiating with House Republicans to bolster border security in exchange for more funding to aid U.S. allies Ukraine and Israel. The GOP has refused to address comprehensive immigration reforms, without which desperate migrants will likely continue seeking to enter the U.S. illegally.
On foreign policy,President Biden criticized his predecessor in the Oval Office for voicing support for dictators such as Russian Premier Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader. Biden also said that in visits with leaders of U.S. allied nations, “virtually all of them” have confided that if Trump wins, they believe their countries will be at risk.”
President Biden concluded, “Together, we can keep proving that America is still a country that believes in decency, dignity, honesty, honor, truth,” adding that there is “nothing beyond our capacity if we act together and decently with one another.”
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