The president delivered the speech at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and took the opportunity to point out that American democracy was born in the city.
While the speech was seen in advance as part of Biden’s pitch for Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, the president issued a stark warning about the future of democracy and painted Trump as an existential threat.
Here are the highlights of Biden’s speech.
1. The Flame of Liberty
President Biden began by connecting his speech to the founding of the U.S. in Philadelphia and the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He then said that preserving the rights enshrined in those documents would be the mission of his administration.
“We must never forget: We, the people, are the true heirs of the American experiment that began more than two centuries ago,” the president said.
Biden said the American people “have burning inside each of us the flame of liberty that was lit here at Independence Hall.”
“That sacred flame still burns now in our time as we build an America that is more prosperous, free, and just,” he said. “That is the work of my presidency, a mission I believe in with my whole soul.”
2. Trump ‘Threatens’ the Republic
Biden didn’t hold back in his criticism of former President Trump and MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republicans. He described them as a threat to democracy in the U.S.
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden said.
The president said that not all Republicans were extremists but “there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”
3. The Big Lie
The president has rarely addressed the so-called “Big Lie”—the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump. On Thursday, he made perhaps his strongest attack on the Big Lie to date.
“And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people,” Biden said.
“They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself,” the president said.
Later in the speech, Biden said democracy “cannot survive when one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election: either they win or they were cheated. And that’s where MAGA Republicans are today.”
“They don’t understand what every patriotic American knows: You can’t love your country only when you win,” he said.
4. Warning About Future Elections
Biden didn’t stop referring to the 2020 election, but warned that future elections could be subject to attempts to undermine the results.
He said that MAGA Republicans “promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
“They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6—brutally attacking law enforcement—not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots,” Biden went on.
“And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections,” he said.
“They tried everything last time to nullify the votes of 81 million people. This time, they’re determined to succeed in thwarting the will of the people,” Biden added.
5. Rejecting Political Violence
President Biden said “history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy” and went on to reject all political violence.
He also made an oblique reference to the recent FBI raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and threats against the agency arising from it.
“We saw law enforcement brutally attacked on January the sixth. We’ve seen election officials, poll workers—many of them volunteers of both parties—subjected to intimidation and death threats. And—can you believe it?—FBI agents just doing their job as directed, facing threats to their own lives from their own fellow citizens,” Biden said.
“On top of that, there are public figures—today, yesterday, and the day before— predicting and all but calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets,” he said.
“This is inflammatory. It’s dangerous. It’s against the rule of law. And we, the people, must say: This is not who we are,” Biden said.
While Biden’s speech was unflinchingly critical of Trump and his Republican allies, the president also struck a positive note, pledging to defend American democracy.
“And I have no doubt, none, that this is who we will be and that we’ll come together as a nation. That we’ll secure our democracy. That for the next 200 years, we’ll have what we had the past 200 years: the greatest nation on the face of the Earth,” he said.
