“History is watching”
Weather has thwarted President Biden’s plans for a major reelection campaign speech. Biden originally meant to mark the third anniverary of the Jan. 6 MAGA insurrection with a speech using Philadelphia as a backdrop, as he did when he called out MAGA Republicans as “a threat to this country” at Independence Hall in September 2022. Biden’s speech will be framed to contrast Biden’s vision of America with that of his expected 2024 Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
The White House has rescheduled the speech for Valley Forge today to get ahead of a winter storm. (I’m still trying to find a time for the speech. Update: It’s at 3 p.m. ET.)
Biden aides had long considered holding an event near Valley Forge, famed as the headquarters of Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army during the American Revolution. Advisers during the media call Thursday said that the site has historical resonance not just as a venue for a battle for liberty, but also for the decisions Washington then made.
Washington twice willingly gave up power: first, he resigned his commission as head of the Army, and then later walked away from the presidency after two terms. His example, Biden aides argue, provides a clear and effective contrast to Trump.
Biden, flagging in approval polls and tied with Trump in several, plans to make defense of democracy again a centerpiece of the fall campaign, as he did ahead of the 2022 midterms.
The address, which builds on previous speeches about safeguarding American institutions and combating political violence, represents a bet that many Americans remain shaken by the Jan. 6 attack and Donald J. Trump’s role in it.
Leaning on a phrase used by America’s first president, George Washington, around the time he commanded troops at Valley Forge, Mr. Biden is expected to suggest that the 2024 election is a test of whether democracy is still a “sacred cause” in the nation, the aide said.
Mr. Biden is fond of using sites of historical significance to underscore speeches that he and his team see as important moments. He traveled to Independence Hall in Philadelphia before the midterm elections and to Gettysburg, Pa., during the 2020 presidential campaign.
His campaign views the events of Jan. 6 — when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent culmination of his election denialism — as critical to understanding how the 2024 campaign will unfold. His team notes that Mr. Trump and Republicans have tried to rewrite the history of that day but argues that images of the Capitol riot remain seared in the minds of voters.
Biden campaign officials spoke on Tuesday with reporters on their strategy on Tuesday (New Yorker):
“The choice for voters,” Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Biden’s campaign manager, said on the call, “will not simply be between competing philosophies of government.” She continued, “The choice will be about protecting our democracy and every American’s fundamental freedom. . . . We are running our campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it, because it does.” Quentin Fulks, the deputy campaign manager, added, “Donald Trump tells us point blank—if he wins a second term, he will do everything he can to dismantle American democracy, strip Americans of their hard-fought and fundamental freedoms. . . . We should take him at his word.”
“I’ve made the preservation of American democracy the central issue of my presidency,” Biden says in new ad contrasting footage of Americans voting with white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, Va. and Jan. 6 MAGA violence at the U.S. Capitol.
“There’s something dangerous happening in America,” Biden continues. “There’s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy.”
Biden is betting scenes from the Jan. 6 insurrection have not faded from Americans’ short memories. Subtext: You can have a democracy of the people, by the people, for the people, or an autocracy of Trump, by Trump, for Trump.
“History is watching. The world is watching.”