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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    • @SoleInvictus
      26•10 months ago

      Classic Trump supporter here, posting sources that contradict their point as supporting their point because, out of eight statements, one weakly suggested peace while the other seven weakly suggested insurrection.

      This is how con men win over the critical thinking challenged crowd.

      • MacN'CheezusEnglish
        -16•10 months ago

        Right, because critical thinking equals defending the majority opinion.

        • @SoleInvictus
          9•10 months ago

          Critical thinking means reading an article with one point that agrees with your stance and seven points that contradict it and realizing it doesn’t actually support your argument.

          Critical thinking means you question what you read, hear, think, write, and say. If you were capable of critical thought, you’d have read your previous comment and realized it doesn’t actually address my comment at all. It just makes an unrelated point. But you’re not capable of even primary school level feats of cognition yet you still vote, and people like you are why American democracy is circling the drain. You just. Don’t. Think.

        • @[email protected]
          1•10 months ago

          Bro. You’re in the minority here, and you’ve made bad takes on every subthread. I don’t have the energy to argue with you. You’re on a predominantly leftist social media platform. No one here agrees with you.

          • MacN'CheezusEnglish
            -4•10 months ago

            Yes, please do tell me how you really feel about minorities.

    • @JustARaccoon
      21•10 months ago

      Did you read the entire page?

      Those were not his only directions to the crowd, however. In the same speech, he also used the following phrases while encouraging people to head to the Capitol and protest his election loss, according to the transcript and video of the speech:

      • “We will stop the steal.”
      • “We will not let them silence your voices.”
      • “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
      • “We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing.”
      • “We’re going to try and give [lawmakers] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
      • “We’re going to have to fight much harder.” “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”