President Biden warns of Trump’s threats to democracy and honors McCain in Arizona
President Joe Biden delivers remarks honoring the legacy of late Arizona Senator John McCain and the importance of strengthening our democracy, Thursday, September 28, 2023, at the Tempe Center for the Arts in Tempe, Arizona. He announces his plan to devote federal funding to create a museum and library in McCain’s honor (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith).
As the U.S. gets closer to the 2024 presidential election, Biden reminds us to uphold democracy over power and aggression.
Article by Skylar Musick, Senior White House Producer
TEMPE, Ariz. - President Biden visited Arizona’s Tempe Center for the Arts on Thursday, honoring the late Republican Sen. John McCain and warning that Donald Trump and his allies are dangers to our democracy.
The 2024 presidential election is more than a year away. However, according to The Associated Press, Biden chose to focus Thursday’s speech on Trump because he remains the president’s frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Trump currently faces four indictments, including two related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The New York Times noted that this speech was Biden’s most direct condemnation of Trump in months. The president depicted his challenger as an autocrat who ignores the principles of American democracy and is motivated by hatred and personal power. Biden usually avoids referring to Trump by name. This time, he held nothing back and warned about the consequences of another Trump term.
“This is a dangerous notion, this president is above the law, no limits on power,” Biden said. “Trump says the Constitution gave him, quote, the right to do whatever he wants as president, end of quote. I never heard a president say that in jest. Not guided by the Constitution or by common service and decency toward our fellow Americans but by vengeance and vindictiveness.”
In his address, Biden mentioned recent comments by Trump. The former president vowed “retribution” against his opponents, accused NBC News of “treason” and suggested that the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, may deserve to be put to death. Biden decried plans by Trump’s allies to make senior government officials personally loyal to Trump.
“Seizing power, concentrating power, attempting to abuse power, purging and packing key institutions, spewing conspiracy theories, spreading lies for profit and power to divide America in every way, inciting violence against those who risk their lives to keep Americans safe, weaponizing against the very soul of who we are as Americans,” Biden said. “This MAGA threat is a threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions. It’s also a threat to the character of our nation.”
The president also cited comments made by other Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who talked of slitting the throats of civil servants, and members of Congress who attempted to conceal the plans of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“It’s not one person,” Biden said. “It’s the controlling element of the House Republican Party.”
Yet President Biden did not put all Republicans in the category of extremism.
“Not every Republican — not even the majority of Republicans — adhere to the extremist MAGA extremist ideology,” he said. “I know because I’ve been able to work with Republicans my whole career. But there’s no question that today’s Republican Party is driven and intimidated by MAGA Republican extremists. Their extreme agenda, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it.”
Advisers approve of the president’s continued focus on democracy, The Associated Press published. According to campaign officials, candidates who denied the 2020 election results did not fare well in competitive races. Officials also found that democracy was a significant issue for voters in 2022.
However, The New York Times added that Biden was also met with animosity, even before his speech. Kari Lake, the Trump ally who lost a race for Arizona governor last year and plans to run for Senate next year, argued that Trump’s recent indictments are the real threat to our country.
“Joe Biden wants to talk about democracy in Arizona — meanwhile he is launching an unprecedented attack on our democracy, targeting his leading political opponent for the White House, attempting to put him in jail just months before the election,” Lake said in a statement.
Like Biden’s previous speeches, the location was chosen for effect, The Associated Press reported. Arizona is the home state of the late Sen. John McCain, who died of brain cancer in 2018. Additionally, the Tempe Center for the Arts is near Arizona State University, which houses the McCain Institute.
President Biden announced that he would direct federal money left over from the 2021 Covid-19 relief plan to help build a new library honoring McCain. The administration later said the contribution will be $83 million for a facility near Papago Park.
Biden and McCain served in the Senate together and remained friendly even after running against each other in 2008. McCain was also one of the most vocal Republican critics of Trump. The New York Times published that Biden’s honoring McCain would reach anti-Trump Republicans and, more generally, voters.
In his speech, the president noted that Trump previously questioned those who serve in the U.S. military, calling service members “suckers and losers.” McCain was a veteran who survived imprisonment in Vietnam.
“Was John a sucker?” Biden asked. “Was my son, Beau — who lived next to a burn pit for a year and came home and died — was he a sucker for volunteering to serve his country?”
Additionally, President Biden was heckled by a climate activist during his speech. The heckler called for the president to declare a climate emergency.
The crowd booed the heckler, but he continued yelling at the president. In response, Biden told the heckler to “shush up,” and that he would meet with him after his speech.
Many climate activists have called for Biden to declare a national emergency on climate change, The Hill reported. During an interview with The Weather Channel last month, Biden said he has “in practice” already declared one.
The president continued his address once the heckler was removed.
President Biden’s message of democracy especially resonates in Arizona, The Associated Press noted. After seven decades of Republican dominance, the state became politically competitive during Trump’s presidency.
According to Biden, the “sacred task of our time” is to make sure our country changes “not for the worst but for the better, that democracy survives and thrives, not be smashed by a movement more interested in power than a principle.”
“It’s up to us, the American people,” Biden said.
Watch the president’s full remarks below.
