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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  • @hark
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    11 year ago

    I’m waiting too, because democrats won’t let one get through.

    • @Rusticus
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      11 year ago

      So you’re complaining about Biden but admit he’s the most progressive president in 50 years. Sounds about on brand for progressives.

      • @hark
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        11 year ago

        No one is denying that biden is the most progressive president that will democrats will allow through, so it’s not much of an admission. This isn’t the gotcha you think it is. That you’re satisfied with a bar so low that it reaches into the core of the Earth sounds about on brand for a diehard democrat such as yourself.

        • @Rusticus
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          11 year ago

          I’m not a democrat and I’m certainly not a huge fan of Biden. But he’s not demented and he’s the best president for progressives in 50 years. Yet progressives act like there is no difference between Biden and Trump. The reason you’re not getting a reasonable progressive candidate/president is that nothing is ever good enough for progressives.

          • @hark
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            11 year ago

            If you’re not a democrat, you still certainly talk like a democratic party PR bot. Asking for health care or to not be under loads of student loan debt is not too much to ask for, but apparently it is for you and the rest of the Biden cheerleaders who think we should all be happy with the garbage-ass president that the democrats pushed through as president. Progressives wanted Bernie. Bernie was the compromise and even then Biden doesn’t hold a candle to Bernie. Biden is fucking garbage, so you touting that he’s the most progressive president that the democrats will allow only makes you and the democratic party (that you supposedly aren’t a fan of) look bad.

            • @Rusticus
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              11 year ago

              QED. Nobody takes progressives seriously because all they do is complain. Fact: Biden is the most progressive president in 50 years. And because progressives like you think he’s “trash” you’re going to get Trump back. How’s that noseless face feel?

              • @hark
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                11 year ago

                If you were alive at the time, you’d probably be telling black people to shut up and be happy with jim crow laws because that was the most progressive state of things since slavery.

                • @Rusticus
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                  11 year ago

                  Don’t be an asshole and assume what I think about this. I’m not even a progressive and I know the way to get more progressive policies is to be positive about the accomplishments more than being negative about the failures. You fail and your approach is having the opposite effect that you want.

                  • @hark
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                    01 year ago

                    I’m not assuming, I’m basing this off your posts. By the way, if you’re not a progressive and you’re not a democrat, then what are you?