“Willing to sacrifice democracy”
Biden ushers in the hot election campaign phase with a frontal attack on Trump
January 6, 2024, 1:01 a.m
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It’s been three years since Donald Trump incited his supporters to storm the Capitol because he didn’t want to give up power. Now he has a good chance of moving into the White House again. President Biden warns urgently: democracy is at stake.
US President Joe Biden began the hot phase of the election campaign with a sharp attack on Republican Donald Trump. Trump is prepared to “sacrifice our democracy” to come back to power, Biden said in a speech in the state of Pennsylvania.
On the eve of the third anniversary of the storming of the Capitol by Trump’s supporters, the Democrat accused his predecessor of wanting to “steal history” with lies. “We all know who Donald Trump is,” Biden said. “The question is, who are we?” The mood in the country is heated. “Trump and his supporters not only advocate political violence, they laugh at it,” warned Biden. Trump has not yet addressed the speech. Shortly before the speech, his campaign team released a spot in which Biden was called “the real destroyer of democracy.”
Biden accused Trump of running a re-election campaign aimed at exacting “revenge and retaliation” against political opponents. The Republican called his opponents “vermin,” “exactly the same language that was used in Nazi Germany.” Biden said, almost in a whisper, “How dare he? Who in God’s name does he think he is?”
Democrats have been warning for months that the United States would slide into autocracy if Trump were re-elected. At the beginning of December he said he wanted to act like a dictator on the “first day” after re-election. He has also stated that he will investigate, arrest and take other action against his political opponents.
Biden was originally scheduled to give his speech on Saturday, the anniversary of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. However, the date was brought forward due to an approaching storm. Pennsylvania is not just Biden’s hometown, where his birthplace Scranton is located. The state with around 13 million inhabitants – roughly as many as Bavaria – is one of the most important for the election because of its narrow majorities. Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 with just under 48.6 percent of the vote, while Biden received just 50.01 percent four years later.
In polls, Trump and Biden are almost neck and neck
Ten months before the election, the two candidates are actually neck and neck: Trump leads Biden by 38 percent to 36 percent in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. However, the remaining 26 percent were undecided. In recent months, Biden has repeatedly referred to the danger that, according to his portrayal, Trump poses to US democracy. Trump and his lawyers reject the accusation of an insurrection against the USA. His statements on January 6, 2021 were covered by freedom of expression. He describes the charges against him as part of a political conspiracy.
On the one hand, Biden’s team wants to use the election campaign to warn of a danger to democracy. On the other hand, Biden wants to focus on issues that are widely discussed in the USA: jobs and inflation, but also gun violence, health care and abortion. A Reuters/Ipsos survey from mid-December confirmed the importance of these issues to voters: nine out of ten respondents said the economy would be important to their voting behavior. About 45 percent of respondents said Trump had a better approach to the economy, while 33 percent were betting on Biden.
Trump is expected to spend Saturday in Iowa. The primary election on January 15th in the rural state is the start of this year’s primaries, in which the two major parties will determine their candidates for the actual vote in early November. Trump and Biden are each considered the clear favorites. Two states have excluded Trump from the primaries. However, this will likely ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, where conservative justices have the majority.