President Joe Biden is starting his campaign year by visiting some of the most distressing moments of US history. He seeks to emphasize the magnitude of the upcoming presidential election, which he believes could decide the fate of American democracy.
Biden begins his tour on Saturday by visiting near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to mark the third anniversary of the Capitol riot. There, he will decry former President Donald Trump for the riot by a mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol.
Biden will visit Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston two days later, where nine people were fatally shot and killed in a white supremacist attack in June 2015. By visiting and acknowledging the pain and suffering that these past events have caused, Biden hopes to make voters focus on the Capitol riot and the Charleston shooting and how they could potentially return under Trump.
Biden’s decision to kick off 2024 by delving into some of the country’s darkest moments rather than highlighting his accomplishments is meant to make clear for voters what his team sees as the significance of the November elections. During both events, Biden will claim Trump poses a serious threat to the nation’s founding principles and will seek to undermine U.S. democracy should he win a second term as president.
“We are running a campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it, because it does,” Biden reelection campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said on a conference call with reporters, the AP reported.
“Joe Biden and his allies are a real and compelling threat to our Democracy,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a memo this week. “In fact, in a way never seen before in our history, they are waging a war against it.”
