The president framed the election as a choice between a candidate devoted to upholding American ideals and a chaos agent willing to discard them for his personal benefit.

President Biden on Friday delivered a ferocious condemnation of Donald J. Trump, his likely 2024 opponent, warning in searing language that the former president had directed an insurrection and would aim to undo the nation’s bedrock democracy if he returned to power.

On the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Mr. Trump’s supporters, Mr. Biden framed the coming election as a choice between a candidate devoted to upholding America’s centuries-old ideals and a chaos agent willing to discard them for his personal benefit.

“There’s no confusion about who Trump is or what he intends to do,” Mr. Biden warned in a speech at a community college not far from Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, where George Washington commanded troops during the Revolutionary War. Exhorting supporters to prepare to vote this fall, he said: “We all know who Donald Trump is. The question is: Who are we?”

In an intensely personal address that at one point nearly led Mr. Biden to curse Mr. Trump by name, the president compared his rival to foreign autocrats who rule by fiat and lies. He said Mr. Trump had failed the basic test of American leaders, to trust the people to choose their elected officials and abide by their decisions.

“We must be clear,” Mr. Biden said. “Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot.”

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  • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
    424·
    11 months ago

    Dems need to target the people on the fence between voting Dem and not voting at all.

    Believe it or not, I’d say that’s who this message is targeted at. It’s for the people saying “Biden isn’t the exact candidate I want, so I’m not going to vote this time to teach Dems a lesson. Then they’ll have to run the exact candidate I want next time.” The message is that you should know that strategy will get you Trump, and you should know by now how that will go.

    • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      65·
      11 months ago

      The message is that you should know that strategy will get you Trump

      This really does depend on where ya live, though.

      As a Californian I already know what my states 55 will be voting for (yay electoral college) and since I can also tell that people going “Biden ain’t good enough” are in the minority here I can pretty safely not vote for him this time (did last time) to hopefully help send the message that they’re losing numbers even in deep blue states. I get that it’s a small protest but when youve already called and written your representatives to say shit like this you can only do so much.

      My local elections will be voted in, as normal, but I’m gonna give my presidential one to a third party or nobody this year guilt free

      • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
        7·
        11 months ago

        A perfectly fair point. My only concern there is that reliance on “sure things” in 2016 is part of why Hillary lost. There were, after all, more votes for Trump in California than any other state, simply down to population size. I’d just hate to see us all get shot in the foot again due to complacency.

      • TurtleJoe@lemmy.world
        72·
        11 months ago

        It’s a stupid protest, because the only reason any third party people are on the ballot is because they want to be Biden spoilers. Jill Stein is a Russian op, for example.

        None of these “third parties” even run in want local, or even any federal elections besides president. They are fake parties, why would you encourage that sort of thing? To “say” you don’t like Biden enough? You think these Russian and GOP dark money funded people are more worthy of your vote?

      • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
        275·
        11 months ago

        -> You’ll be shot in the head if you don’t eat your Brussels sprouts.

        -> No, cookies and ice cream or nothing!

        Life and especially politics is full of compromises. Everybody compromises on something on every vote. You know what the stakes are, and you know what the consequences of inaction are.

        Unfortunately, “not Trump” IS a good enough reason, and you have the choice to come to terms with that fact before November, or during a Trump presidency/dictatorship.