President Joe Biden delivered remarks commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, on Thursday, in which he vowed to continue standing alongside the people of Ukraine.
Biden’s remarks, honoring the veterans of World War II, cautioned against allowing “tyranny” and “dictators” to go unchecked across the free world and bore more than a passing resemblance to comments the president frequently makes on the 2024 campaign trail about his likely opponent, former President Donald Trump.
The president often criticizes Trump for his isolationist foreign policy, attacks his friendships with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and routinely claims that Trump would be a dictator “on day one” if elected to a second term.
TYRANNY, LIBERTY, AND THE MORAL IMPORT OF D-DAY
“Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and it is not the answer today,” the president stated Thursday. “To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable. Were we to do that, it means we would be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches. Make no mistake: We will not bow down. We will not forget.”
Biden also frequently mentions an unverified claim that Trump referred to World War II veterans as “suckers” and “losers” while visiting Normandy as president, and he closed his Thursday speech by honoring the D-Day armed forces as “heroes.”
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“We must remember that the fact that there were heroes here that day does not absolve us of what we have to do today. Democracy is never guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it, defend it, and fight for it. That’s the test of the ages,” the president declared. “The memory of those who fought here, died here, literally saved the world here — let us be worthy of their sacrifice. Let us be the generation that, when history is written about our time in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now, it will be said that when the moment came, we met the moment. We stood strong. Our alliances were made stronger. We saved democracy in our time as well.”
You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.