President Joe Biden has been doing plenty of campaign events in Pennsylvania this week, as was the case with Tuesday's economic speech in his hometown of Scranton. On Thursday, he was also in Philadelphia. While it wasn't outside of Independence Hall, like where he gave the notorious "battle for the soul of the nation" speech, it was still in the same city. Despite the different location, the theme was still the same in a way, as the president addressed topics like "democracy" and "freedom." At one point, as he is prone to do, Biden got mixed up, asking the crowd if they were "ready to choose freedom over democracy."
BIDEN: "Are you ready to choose freedom over democracy? Because that's America!" 🥴 pic.twitter.com/VaiHZhcwLe
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 18, 2024
Even the official White House transcript acknowledges the slip-up, claiming he meant "freedom and democracy." In the full context of his rant to the applauding crowd, Biden closed his speech by going for lines what so many of us have heard before and been so turned off by:
In 2024, we have a chance to make hope and history rhyme again. Are you ready to do that with me? (Applause.)
Are you ready to move forward, not back? (Applause.)
Are you ready to choose unity over division, dignity over demolition, and choose truth over lies? (Applause.) Are you ready to choose freedom
over[and] democracy? Because that’s America. (Applause.)Folks, I’ve been doing this a long — I know I only look like I’m 40, but I’ve been doing this a long time. (Laughter.) But I’ve never been more optimistic about our future, and I mean it.
We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. There is nothing — I mean this sincerely. Think about it. We’re the only nation in the world — as a student of history, I can say — that’s come out of ever crisis stronger than we went in.
There’s nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.
The experiences of Americans during the Biden presidency, as reflected in the polls, don't seem to suggest voters think that by electing Biden we're "ready to move forward." Biden is also an incredibly divisive president, as we've explained in detail before. We've also heard so many lies about former and potentially future President Donald Trump, from Biden's own remarks and social media posts, to the awful habit from the Biden HQ X account on a wide range of topics.
Biden can tell all the jokes in the world about his age, which voters are concerned with, but it's no laughing matter. He may be optimistic, but the American people are not. RealClearPolling shows that just 26 percent think we're headed in the right direction, while 64.0 percent say we're on the wrong track.
But perhaps Biden is on to something when it comes to his slip-up, with "freedom over democracy." For all of these threats to democracy that Biden and his fellow Democrats warn about, it's Biden who is using his weaponized and politicized Department of Justice (DOJ) to go after Trump, with Special Counsel Jack Smith bringing charges both to do with January 6 and classified documents. Back in April of 2022, with that story gaining more attention, reporting from The New York Times highlighted how Biden "has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6."
The DOJ isn't just going after Biden's top political opponent, but everyday Americans. Peaceful pro-lifers praying at abortion facilities have been charged and found guilty under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, how concerned parents at school board meetings have been targeted, as well as traditional Catholics.
Just moments earlier in his speech, Biden told some lies of his own, despite inviting the audience to "choose truth over lies."
The president warned about how "today, we face another inflection point in history," and how "the 2024 election is about two fundamentally different visions of--for America. Donald Trump’s vision is one of anger, hate, revenge, and retribution." In that context, Biden brought up Trump's comments about being a dictator on "day one," which he said in jest and also confirmed were a joke, as well as the "bloodbath" comments that were clearly meant in the economic sense about the U.S. auto industry, especially considering he made them in Dayton, Ohio.
These tactics are getting old, yet it looks like Biden will only increasingly use such false narratives on the campaign trail.
It's not just Biden, though. On Tuesday, when he was speaking to CNN's John Berman to preview the president's speech, Mitch Landrieu, a campaign co-chair, tried to similarly boost the president by claiming "the incredible thing that should be obvious to everybody" is how "Joe Biden gets up every day fighting for the American people. He does what I call the hard work of governing well all the time. And he can focus on that because he focuses on bringing people together." Berman wasn't really buying it, though.
Earlier in the speech, Biden spoke about how he's going to "win Pennsylvania" with the help from a man named John White Jr. and his son, Kellan, who is working on the campaign. Biden is only leading there by +0.5, while he's currently behind Trump in all the other swing states.
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