President Joe Biden has spoken from Pointe du Hoc, marking his second trip to the Normandy coast during his visit to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day
POINTE DU HOC, France
President Joe Biden on Friday summoned Americans to defend democracy from threats at home and abroad — and cast an implicit contrast with Donald Trump — as he drew on the heroism of Army Rangers who scaled the seaside cliffs of Pointe du Hoc in the D-Day invasion 80 years ago.
The same spot was etched in the nation's political memory in 1984, when President Ronald Reagan honored the “boys of Pointe du Hoc” and drew common cause between their almost unthinkable feat in the face of Nazi Germany's tyranny and the Reagan-era Cold War struggle against the Soviet Union.
Now, Biden sought to channel both historic moments to advance his own vision for the country’s global role in the face of two grueling wars and in an election year when former President Trump has continued to lie about his 2020 election loss and has threatened to dismantle U.S. commitments overseas if he regains the White House.
“As we gather here today, it’s not just to honor those who showed such remarkable bravery that day June 6, 1944,” Biden said. “It’s to listen to the echo of their voices. To hear them. Because they are summoning us. They’re asking us what will we do. They’re not asking us to scale these cliffs. They’re asking us to stay true to what America stands for.”
It was ostensibly an official speech, and Biden, a Democrat, never referenced the Republican former president's name. But his remarks were steeped in political overtones as his campaign tries to attract national security-minded Republican voters who lionized Reagan and have never warmed to Trump's “America First” foreign policy.
“They’re not asking us to do their job,” Biden said of the “ghosts of Pointe du Hoc." "They’re asking us to do our job: to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves.”
A day earlier, Biden paid his respects to the D-Day force in an emotional ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery that was also attended by dozens of veterans in their late 90s and older. A Navy officer recited “The Watch,” affirming that a new generation was taking up the defense of freedom; a 21-gun salute cast eerie smoke over 9,388 white marble headstones; and the president grew heavy-eyed and pumped his fist as an F-35 flew past performing a missing-man salute.
To continue reading this story please CLICK HERE
Story Source AP News or please click on the blue link above this sentence.
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment