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U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, March 8, 2024.
Washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden took to the stage Friday in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state for his second term, drawing contrasts with his predecessor in what was effectively the first rally of his 2024 general election campaign. did.
Biden’s speech in suburban Philadelphia was essentially a condensed version of his State of the Union address the night before, but there were some notable differences. Biden didn’t hesitate to mention his predecessor and likely 2024 rival by name on Friday, but avoided doing so during his State of the Union address.
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republican Party are trying to take away our freedoms,” Biden told the audience Friday. “That’s not an exaggeration.”
“Well, guess what?” the president added. “We will not forgive him.”
Mr. Biden repeatedly cited the former president in his remarks Friday, citing Mr. Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade, the $2 trillion in tax cuts he signed while in office, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He slammed recent comments encouraging people to do so.what he wants to do NATO member states that fail to meet their funding obligations.
“He thinks President Putin is strong. Fundamentally, he’s a decent human being,” Biden said of Trump.
He also mentioned President Trump’s remarks. On Friday, he met with Hungarian strongman Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at Mar-a-Lago.
“Do you know who he’s meeting with at Mar-a-Lago today?” Biden said. “Hungary’s Mr. Orbán has said flatly that he doesn’t think democracy can work. He wants a dictatorship.”
“That’s the person he’s meeting,” Biden added. “I see a future that protects democracy, not undermines it.”
His remarks were peppered with references to Thursday night’s State of the Union. Biden began his speech by referencing a tumultuous exchange he had with Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene the night before.
“If you’re tired, you probably watched my speech last night,” Biden told the audience. “As always, I received a warm welcome from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
As Greene and other Republicans blame Biden’s border policies for Riley’s death, the Georgia Republican lawmaker told Biden that Laken Riley, a nursing student allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant, was killed by an illegal immigrant. He pressured me to tell him his name. Biden responded by holding up a pin bearing Riley’s name that Greene had given him as the bill passed through the House.
He said Riley’s name and appeared to be forgetting her first name, but he also referenced his own personal experience with grief over the deaths of two of his own children.
Throughout Friday’s remarks, a fired-up Biden sought to frame the 2024 election as a battle between “those who want to take America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future.”
“My life has taught me to embrace the future. What I really want to say is freedom, democracy, and the core values that have defined America: integrity, decency. , a future based on fairness and equality.” “No, I really do, we don’t always follow it, but that’s the American creed. Donald Trump sees this story differently. He’s a man with a grudge, a revenge , we’re looking at a story of retribution.”
Biden also said he stayed up until 2 a.m. covering and responding to the State of the Union address from the White House.
Biden was widely praised by Democrats in his address to the nation on Thursday, but he made some remarks that made some in his own party uncomfortable and omitted others. He called the suspect in Riley’s murder an “illegal offender” and did not mention the word “abortion.”
Speaking to reporters before leaving for Pennsylvania on Friday, Biden defended his use of the word “unlawful” to describe the man arrested in Riley’s murder.
“Well, I probably – I don’t regret it – technically he shouldn’t be here,” he said.
He also joked about the hot mic moment captured after Biden spoke to lawmakers about expanding humanitarian aid to Gaza, during which he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “Yes. Please come and have a meeting with Mr. ”
Asked Friday if he had seen Republican Sen. Katie Britt’s reaction to his speech, Biden said he had seen the clip.
“I just saw it on TV a little bit,” he said. “I thought she was a very talented woman. I never understood the kind of connections she had.”
CNN’s Donald Judd and MJ Lee contributed.
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