Biden aims for a Donald Trump-George Washington contrast

President Joe Biden will place the defense of democracy at the center of his reelection bid on Friday in what will resemble an unofficial campaign kickoff.

Using the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection to frame the stakes of the 2024 campaign, the president will draw upon the history of the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, setting Friday to argue that his likely rematch with Donald Trump will be a seismic test of the republic’s foundation, according to senior Biden advisers who offered a preview of the speech.

“Democracy is not a sideline issue: It is a sacred cause,” said one of the advisers, granted anonymity as part of the ground rules during a call with reporters. “When major events occur, people render the judgments in national elections. Voters won’t forget Jan. 6.”

It is becoming less clear how true that assertion is the further the country moves away from the riots that day. A recently released Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found that 34 percent of Republicans voters falsely believe the FBI organized the attempted insurrection.

The Biden campaign is hoping that speeches like the one he gives Friday will help remind voters of what happened, in addition to framing the stakes ahead. In preparation for the speech, the president assembled a group of historians at the White House earlier this week.

Biden aides had long considered holding an event near Valley Forge, famed as the headquarters of Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army during the American Revolution. Advisers during the media call Thursday said that the site has historical resonance not just as a venue for a battle for liberty, but also for the decisions Washington then made.

Washington twice willingly gave up power: first, he resigned his commission as head of the Army, and then later walked away from the presidency after two terms. His example, Biden aides argue, provides a clear and effective contrast to Trump.

The president made the fight for democracy central to the party’s message for the 2022’s midterm elections. He returned to the theme last year during a speech at the McCain Institute.

Biden will extend the concept of freedom to other issue areas during his remarks on Friday, aides said. That includes access to vote, abortion rights and economic fairness. He will then pair the Valley Forge speech — which was originally slated for Saturday, the third anniversary of the insurrection, but pushed up a day because of an impending storm — with one Monday at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. That church was the site of a racist mass shooting in 2015. And his speech there, aides said, will link that violence to hateful extremism while also acting as outreach to Black voters.

Biden’s itinerary in the coming days reflects a series of key electoral goals. His visit to South Carolina will underscore just how critically he regards the state, which holds the year’s first sanctioned Democratic primary.

And Pennsylvania, the site of Friday’s stop, is considered by many political operatives to be the most important state on the map to November and the one in which Biden has spent the most time since taking office. A defeat there, aides concede, would likely portend an election loss.