Biden: Commitment to Democracy ‘Is What the 2024 Election Is All About’

President Joe Biden on Friday will say the 2024 election is “all about” whether democracy is still “America’s sacred cause,” according to excerpts provided by the president’s reelection campaign, using a speech marking the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection to lambast former President Donald Trump by name.

The speech, which Biden will deliver in Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon, sets up an extraordinary moment in presidential politics where the current officeholder, in his bid to keep the job, is questioning his predecessor’s commitment to democracy ahead of what is expected to be a Biden v. Trump rematch in November.

According to the excerpts, Biden will lament that the truth about what happened on Jan. 6 has eroded over the last three years, allowing Republicans to obscure the cause of the attack.

“When the attacks of January 6th happened, there was no doubt about the truth. At the time, even Republican members of Congress and Fox News commentators publicly and privately condemned the attack. And as one Republican Senator said, Trump’s behavior was embarrassing and humiliating for the country,” Biden will say. 

“But now as time has gone on — politics, fear, money – have all intervened. And those MAGA voices who know the truth about Trump and January 6th have abandoned the truth and abandoned our democracy,” he will add. “They’ve made their choice. Now the rest of us – Democrats, Independents, mainstream Republicans – we have to make our choice. I know mine. And I believe I know America’s.”

Biden will deliver the speech a few miles from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where then-Gen. George Washington positioned the new nation’s Continental Army for the winter of 1777-1778 and turned them into the force that would defeat the British in 1781.

The speech will be full of symbolism for Biden. Beyond the president’s push to unite the country – much like Washington did with his army during those frigid months in Valley Forge – Washington was the first president to establish the nation’s commitment to peaceful transfers of power when he announced his retirement in 1796.

That tradition had held until the attack on the Capitol in 2021 and Trump’s actions looking to overturn the 2020 election.

Biden will recall that moment Washington decided to serve only two terms in office, according to the excerpts, drawing a clear comparison to Trump in 2020.

"In America, our leaders don’t hold on to power relentlessly. Our leaders return power to the people – willingly. You do your duty. You serve your country. And ours is a country worthy of service,” Biden will say. “We are not perfect, but at our best, we face head on the good, the bad, the truth of who we are. That’s what great nations do, and we are a great nation – the greatest of nations.”

Biden’s speech has been cast by Democrats as the opening salvo in his reelection campaign, one where he will link Republican extremism, as exemplified by what happened on Jan. 6, with issues like abortion, protecting democracy and the economy, some of the top issues to American voters.