US President Joe Biden accused Donald Trump, his likely rival in the 2024 presidential contest, of placing concern for his own personal power over the service of democracy in a Pennsylvania speech on Friday intended to kickstart his campaign and mark the third anniversary of the January 6 attacks on the Capitol.
The upcoming election is "all about whether democracy is still America's sacred cause", he said, adding: Trump's presidential campaign is "all about him, not America".
"Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power," Biden said in his speech near Valley Forge.
"Our campaign is different ... Our campaign is about America – it is about you, it's about every age and background that occupy this country. It's about the future."
"Trump and his MAGA supporters not only embrace political violence, but they laugh about it," Biden said.
He added that Trump has been using language reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party.
"He talks about the blood of Americans being poisoned, echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany," Biden said. "He proudly posted on social media the words that best describe his 2024 campaign. Quote: revenge. Quote: power in. Quote: dictatorship."
"There's no confusion about who Trump is, what he intends to do," the president said.
Despite facing state and federal charges over election interference, Trump in recent months has doubled down on vowing to act as a dictator on "day one" and pledged to investigate, incarcerate and otherwise take revenge on his political opponents.
The Republican frontrunner is expected to spend Saturday's anniversary of the January 6 insurrection campaigning with rallies in Iowa, which hosts the first Republican nominating contest of the presidential race on January 15.
His leading opponents have largely avoided raising the January 6 attack or Trump's role in it. Lawyers for Trump have disputed that he engaged in insurrection and argued that his remarks to supporters on the day of the 2021 riot were protected by his constitutional right to free speech.
Maine’s top election official disqualified Donald Trump from the state ballot in next year’s US presidential primary election, becoming the second state to bar the former president for his role in the attack on the Capitol under the "insurrection" clause. Colorado’s top court disqualified Trump from the state primary ballot earlier in December, making him the first candidate in US history to be deemed ineligible for the presidency for engaging in insurrection.
The question of whether Trump should be disqualified from the nationwide 2024 ballot may be headed to the US Supreme Court, after Trump asked the high court to review the Colorado ruling.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
