President Joe Biden will present a case for democracy on Friday against the backdrop of a major turning point for the Allied forces in World War II – creating a dramatic moment with war once again on Europe’s doorstep and creating a domestic contrast to his political rival .
Biden will travel Friday to Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, France — a spot separating the beaches of Omaha and Utah where U.S. Army Rangers climbed steep cliffs to secure positions against the Germans — for a speech on the power of democracy, including an appeal is made to the symbolism of the place.
In a week full of stirring images from America’s greatest generation, the speech will stand out as a call to contemporary action against the isolationist streak seeping into American politics and the rise of authoritarianism around the world.
Not gone unnoticed by White House aides planning the speech is the speech delivered at the same site 40 years ago by Ronald Reagan, a Republican who warned against isolationism in the face of tyranny.
Eighty years after the Allied landings, the president’s remarks will draw a “continuous line” from World War II to today, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. But the subtext of the speech will also likely be aimed at former President Donald Trump.
‘He will talk about the stakes of that moment: an existential struggle between dictatorship and freedom. He’ll talk about the men who climbed these cliffs and how they… put the country ahead. And he will talk about the dangers of isolationism and how if we support dictators and fail to stand up to them, they will continue, and America and the world will ultimately pay a higher price,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Biden has repeatedly portrayed Trump’s embrace of authoritarian leaders — including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — as a threat to democracy.
The president, Sullivan continued, will “really draw a line from World War II, through the Cold War and the rise of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, the NATO alliance, to today, where we will have to deal with war again.” Europe, where NATO has united to defend freedom and sovereignty in Europe.”
Biden, a senior administration official, told CNN he will “focus on the veterans of World War II and what we owe them and how we must live up to their example – and the power of democracy.”
It comes as Biden faces international crises: in Ukraine, where the US hopes to turn the tide of Russia’s offensive, and in the Middle East, where the Biden administration is calling on Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal -fire and accept a hostage proposal. .
A months-long delay in providing additional U.S. aid to Ukraine, prompted in part by resistance from Republicans aligned with Trump, led to setbacks on the battlefield and momentum for Russia. The strain of isolationism has raised concerns in Europe and elsewhere about what a Trump return to the White House might mean.
Biden announced a new aid package for Ukraine during a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, touting the new funding for the war-torn region and apologizing for the delay.
“You know, you haven’t bowed down, you haven’t caved in at all, you continue to fight in a way that is just remarkable, just remarkable — and we’re not going to walk away from you,” Biden said. the Ukrainian president. “I apologize for the weeks that I didn’t know what was going to happen, in terms of funding, because we had problems getting the bill that we had to pass and it had money from some of our very conservative members who held back, but we got it done.”
Still, he took the opportunity to highlight today’s funding announcement, as well as the additional funding sent to Ukraine since he signed the bill in April.
“Since then, including today, I have today announced six packages of significant funding. Including today – today I am also signing an additional $225 million package to reconstruct the power grid,” he said.
By speaking at Pointe du Hoc, Biden is harking back to one of the most famous presidential speeches ever delivered, the D-Day speech in honor of Reagan’s 40th birthday.
Reagan delivered a powerful rebuke of authoritarianism, framed through the lens of the courage of “the boys from Pointe du Hoc.” The senior government official said: “There is no way there will be no comparisons.”
That speech, like Biden’s, came at a time of disagreement with Russia.
Flanked by the men who fought there, Reagan, another aging president running for re-election, made a powerful appeal to the power of democracy.
“You all knew that some things are worth dying for. Your country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it is the most honorable form of government ever devised by man. You all loved freedom. You were all prepared to fight tyranny, and you knew that the people of your countries stood with you,” Reagan said.
Like Biden, he also warned about America’s withdrawal from the world.
“We have learned that isolationism has never been and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments,” Reagan said at the time.
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Biden has delivered pivotal speeches on democracy during a traveling roadshow.
It was a key theme of his 2022 State of the Union address, in which he described the struggle between democracy and autocracy as the key question of this moment in history.
He said defending, protecting and preserving American democracy was “the central cause of my presidency” as he honored the late Republican Sen. John McCain in Tempe, Arizona, in September 2023.
He emphasized shared support for democracy ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Warsaw, Poland, in February 2023.
And on the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, earlier this year, Biden labeled the value Americans place on democracy as the “most pressing issue of our time.”
CNN’s Kayla Tausche contributed to this report.
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