Biden often portrays Trump – who was twice impeached and faces multiple criminal prosecutions (Documents)
United States Washington:
U.S. President Joe Biden will use his State of the Union address on Thursday to attack rival Donald Trump as plotting “revenge” while offering his own vision of an American comeback to skeptical voters.
In one of the most important speeches of his long political career, the 81-year-old Democrat sought to ease concerns about his age by portraying himself as the only alternative to anti-democratic Trump in November’s election.
But in a sign of the multiple challenges Biden faces, protesters opposed to his support for Israel’s war against Hamas blocked his motorcade’s possible route to the Capitol shortly before the speech.
Biden did not mention Trump by name in the excerpt released by the White House, but made an apparent dig at the 77-year-old Republican, who has refused to accept his defeat in the 2020 election and is currently in the polls. leads Biden by a slim margin.
“My life has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy,” Biden said in a prime-time speech that began at 9:00 pm (0200 GMT).
“Now, some people my age are seeing a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge and retribution. That’s not who I am.”
Biden has often portrayed Trump, who has been impeached twice and faces multiple criminal prosecutions, including the January 2021 attack on the Capitol, as an existential threat to American democracy.
“The Greatest Comeback”
In his speech, Biden lashed out at Republican abortion opponents, saying they “know nothing about the power of American women,” an issue Democrats view as a key to winning votes.
With many Americans struggling with high prices, Biden said of the U.S. economy that “in thousands of towns and cities, the American people are writing the greatest story of recovery ever told.”
Biden is also preparing to use his annual address to Congress to dispel doubts about the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
His announcement in a speech that he had ordered U.S. forces to build a port on the Gaza coast to bring in more aid reflected serious political pressure from many in his own party.
However, AFP reporters said dozens of protesters calling for a ceasefire blocked Pennsylvania Avenue, a wide thoroughfare that leads from the White House to the Capitol.
They chanted slogans including “The State of the Union is genocide!”
Before the speech, Trump accused Biden of causing “horrible destruction” during his three years in office, focusing on the record number of migrants crossing the Mexican border.
“It’s time to tell Crooked Joe Biden — you’re fired,” Trump said in a “pre-rebuttal” video, using a catchphrase from his former reality TV show “The Apprentice.”
age issue
For the millions of Americans watching the event, they were most interested not just in what Biden said before a joint session of Congress, but also in how he said it.
For example, will he trip? Or will he mix up the names of people and countries, deepening concerns that a recent special counsel report described him as senile and forgetful?
The White House said Biden was well prepared for the speech and ready to handle questions from Trump allies last year, which he successfully fended off with fierce retorts.
One of last year’s hecklers, hard-right Marjorie Taylor Greene, wore a T-shirt referencing the murder of Georgia student Laken Riley by a suspected immigrant.
As is tradition, first lady Jill Biden will host a select number of guests to highlight White House priorities.
This year, they include a Texas woman who was forced to leave the state for an abortion, a woman who stopped receiving in vitro fertilization treatments due to an Alabama court ruling, and the prime minister of Sweden, who on Thursday became the newest member of NATO.
The speech came two days after Trump and Biden swept this week’s Super Tuesday primaries, all but setting the stage for a rematch in the 2020 election, but polls show that is not the case for many A sequel that American voters didn’t actually want.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
