Joe Biden has said that the heroes of D-day would have wanted today’s Americans to stand up to aggression “abroad and at home”, in what appeared to be a reference to both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Biden pointed to the looming threats to democracy in remarks he made at the Pointe du Hoc in France, where US Rangers scaled the cliffs in a pivotal moment in the D-day landings 80 years ago.
The US president invoked the spirit of heroism of those who took part in the assault to rally Americans to the defence of democracy in the face of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – and Trump’s possible overturning of democratic norms and institutions in the US.
“They ask 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,” Biden said. “They’re not asking us to do their job. They’re asking us to do our job, to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to stand up [to] aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves.”
Biden was speaking from the top of a concrete German bunker overlooking the Channel, the same spot where Ronald Reagan gave a speech in the midst of a re-election campaign in 1984. This time, Biden pointed out, none of the rangers who took part in the famous cliff ascent were still living.
“They stood against Hitler’s aggression. Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against Putin’s aggression here in Europe today?” Biden said. “They stormed the beaches alongside their allies. Does anyone believe these rangers want America to go it alone today?
“They fought to vanquish a hateful ideology, in the 30s and 40s. Does anyone doubt they would move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today?” the president said, turning to domestic politics. “Our actions every day [should be] to ensure that our democracy endures, the soul of our nation endures.”
The Pointe du Hoc speech took place towards the end of several days of D-day memorials. Biden will stay in France and on Saturday will travel to Paris for an official state visit, which will begin with a wreath-laying ceremony with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomphe.
The two presidents will then take the traditional car journey down the Champs Élysées surrounded by hundreds of guards on horseback. This will be followed by a meeting on international issues, including a ceasefire proposal for the Israel-Gaza conflict and measures on the war in Ukraine, as well as preparations for the coming Nato summit. There will be an exchange with business leaders and a state dinner under the chandeliers of the Élysée Palace on Saturday night.
Macron’s office pointed out that Biden’s five-day stay in France for the D-day commemorations and state visit was the longest foreign trip the US president had undertaken during his leadership and “one of the longest visits of any American president” to France in modern times. An Élysée official said this reflected the “good relationship” between the two leaders.
The official said Biden’s Paris visit remained “tied to the Normandy commemorations” but would allow France to pay tribute to the US’s contribution to the liberation of France and Europe in a way that would “also project the lessons we can take from that engagement during the second world war on to the challenges we are confronted with today”. Macron’s office said Saturday’s meetings were about the US and French leaders exploring how to “contribute to peace and international security”.
During Donald Trump’s state visit to Paris for the Bastille Day military parade in 2017, US and French troops marched together down the Champs Élysée while Trump repeatedly mouthed “so good”. Later Trump reportedly asked the Pentagon to explore how the US could top France’s Bastille Day with its own military parade.
The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby said Biden and Macron had a “warm and close relationship” built on frankness.
“One of the things that President respects and admire so much about President Macron is that he’s as honest and as forthright as Joe Biden is,” Kirby said. “That’s what he wants to see in a in a friend and an ally: an ability to shoot straight, say what’s on your mind.”
He said one of the lead issues on the agenda when the two presidents meet will be deepening cooperation between the US and France navies, particularly in the Indo-Pacific hemisphere.
Biden’s visit to Paris is expected to set him in contrast to Trump. On Sunday, before flying back to Washington, he is expected to visit a cemetery where US soldiers who died in the first world war are buried. Trump skipped plans to visit the same site during a 2018 trip to France, a decision that the White House blamed on weather at the time. There were reports later that Trump told aides he did not want to go because he viewed the dead soldiers as “suckers” and “losers”. He denied the comments, which Biden referenced during a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut on Monday.
Laurence Nardon, the head of the US programme at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), said there would be an element of Biden contrasting Trump on the state visit to Paris. “The narrative in the US this week is that you have one candidate who is a felon who was just convicted in the New York case, while the other is going abroad to celebrate democracy on the shores of Normandy. The contrast couldn’t be stronger. It’s par for the game to use that for the Democratic campaign.”
She said the contrast was clear in Biden’s speech on democracy and the defence of democracy. “And it will give Biden’s campaign very nice visuals from the Normandy beaches.”
