Last Friday, ahead of the anniversary of Jan. 6, President Joe Biden gave a speech near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to kick off his 2024 campaign. His theme was that the upcoming presidential election will determine whether or not America remains a democracy because a vote for Donald Trump is a vote to end democracy in America.
Politically speaking, the purpose of the speech was clear. Given that Biden has among the lowest favorability numbers ever recorded for a sitting president, he cannot make the election about his achievements.
Because he has none that warrant his reelection. In every way, he has made America a worse country.
He has terribly damaged the economy — increased an already unsustainable national debt; changed an energy-independent and energy-exporting country into an energy dependent and energy-importing one.
He hurt America and the world by withdrawing — and in the way he withdrew — American troops from Afghanistan. He showed that America cannot be counted on by those who depend on us. He abandoned $7 billion in weaponry, much of it now being used by Islamic terror groups. For example, as NBC News reported, “Most of the weapons recovered so far, officials say, are from Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), both Pakistan-based militant groups that the U.S. designates as terrorist organizations.” Other weapons have ended up in Gaza, and others in Iran.
He has hurt America and Israel by enriching the Iranian regime. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The Iranian surge in oil exports since President Biden took over has brought Iran an additional $32 billion to $35 billion, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. … The cause of the Iranian windfall is clear: As part of Mr. Biden’s quiet diplomacy with Iran, the U.S. has curtailed sanctions enforcement. … Iran’s funding for Hamas ballooned in the past year to $350 million.” In addition, Biden paid Iran $6 billion to ransom five American hostages.
Why didn’t Russia invade Ukraine while Trump was president? Probably because Putin feared Trump. What foreign leader fears Biden? The only people who fear Biden are half of the American people.
He has done terrible damage to the most important freedom — freedom of speech. Among other things, his administration worked with Big Tech before and since the 2020 election to censor political speech.
He has created the first large set of political prisoners in American history — hundreds, soon perhaps thousands, of Americans sentenced to prison for merely entering the Capitol, or for just being present on the Capitol grounds, on Jan. 6.
He has weaponized the Department of Justice against his political opponents, and is overseeing the prosecution of an ex-president and political rival for the first time in American history.
From his first day in office, he has stoked racial tension in America. His inaugural address was the most hate-filled and divisive inaugural address in American history.
He has so demoralized the American military that recruitment levels are at their lowest ever.
He has promoted biological boys competing against girls in high school and college sports under the guise of “transgender rights.”
Therefore, his one route to victory is to convince Americans that Trump presents an existential threat to every core American value — democracy, freedom, and the Constitution. This is purely Orwellian. It is the Democratic Party and the rest of the Left that threatens democracy, freedom, and the Constitution.
Some excerpts from his speech:
“Today, we gather in a new year, some 246 years later, just one day before Jan. 6, a day forever shared in our memory because it was on that day that we nearly lost America — lost it all.”
What happened on Jan. 6 was shameful, foolish, and when violent (which it overwhelmingly was not), criminal. But to say “on that day we nearly lost America — lost it all” is a lie.
“Trump’s claims about the 2020 election never could stand up in court. Trump lost 60 court cases — 60.”
The statement is false because no Trump claim about the 2020 election results was ever allowed to be heard on the merits in an American courtroom.
“And since that day, more than 1,200 people have been charged for their assault on the Capitol. Nearly 900 of them have been convicted or pled guilty. Collectively, to date, they have been sentenced to more than 840 years in prison.”
The vast majority of those imprisoned people engaged in no violence and did nothing more wrong than trespass.
“So, hear me clearly. I’ll say what Donald Trump won’t. Political violence is never, ever acceptable in the United States political system — never, never, never. It has no place in a democracy. None.”
That is another lie. 2020 saw a staggering amount of left-wing violence, and apparently it did have “a place in a democracy.”
“He’s threatened the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the death penalty.”
What Trump said was that the meeting of Gen. Mark A. Milley, the just-retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the Chinese government after the Capitol protests, was “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been death.”
That was an observation about the serious nature of Milley’s violation of diplomatic norms, not a threat to sentence Milley to death.
“This coming from a president who, when he visited a cemetery, called dead soldiers ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’ Remember that?”
Even Snopes and The Washington Post concluded that there is no evidence for Trump having said that about the soldiers who died at Normandy Beach. Even John Bolton, who wrote a scathing attack on Trump after leaving office, defended Trump against this claim made by an anonymous source cited by The Atlantic. Yet Biden declares it as a fact.
“America, as we begin this election year, we must be clear: Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot.”
If democracy and freedom are on the ballot, it is because the Left, of which the Democratic Party is its political arm, threatens democracy and freedom.
But Joe Biden knows that he has the entire mainstream media and all the giant social media companies except for X, formerly Twitter, on his side. So, he can hide his record and stoke hatred for Trump and his supporters from now until November. And get away with it.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist.
