President Joe Biden kicked off his first campaign event of 2024 with a speech at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell on Friday, January 5.
The president had been originally scheduled to deliver remarks on Saturday—the third anniversary of the riot at the United States Capitol—but they were moved a day earlier due to “impending inclement weather,” according to the Biden campaign.
The Reporter gathered reactions from Montgomery County officials, including Rep. Madeleine Dean of Glenside / Jenkintown, who said she was “impressed” by the president’s remarks.
“I thought it was masterful. It was rooted in our history. It was inspirational, but it was extremely honest, and that is what America needs to hear. The brutal truth about what happened to this country over the course of the previous administration, and of course on Jan. 6. He was brutally honest in saying to the American people – this is what is at stake,” she said.
“We are a nucleus, and I think that’s a relatively small crowd, and it’s for us to radiate that message out, the words of our president out, and I hope he will make that speech from now until Nov. 5 because everything is at stake, and we have to be looking at this in an absolutely unvarnished way,” Dean said.
In 2021, Dean was selected as one of nine impeachment managers chosen by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to present the House’s argument on why Trump should be convicted. The rest of her comments via The Reporter are below:
I was there when that strange set of instructions came, which was (to) sit down, prepare to lie down, get the gas mask out from under your seat, put them on and wait for us to get you out of here. We had no idea, until I heard the banging on those doors, and the breaking of the glass of the chamber, what in God’s name was going on. We were traumatized. We were terrified. I was terrified for myself. I scared my children by calling them and said here’s where I am, but I was much more terrified for our country. Would we have a capitol? Would we have a democracy?
I have to admit I’m anxious for this election cycle, I’m anxious for democracy and I’m a little angry that three years later we have Republican leaders, and the possible nominee of the Republican party, continuing to lie, stoke fear, stoke violence, all to tear down our democracy, to keep themselves in power.
On January 6, Vanity Fair published an article titled “President Biden, in First Major Campaign Speech of 2024, Slams Trump as Threat to ‘Sacred Cause’ of Democracy“. An excerpt:
The president recounted in excruciating detail the shocking events that unfolded as hundreds of Trump supporters attempted to stop the formal certification of the 2020 presidential election: the shattering of doors and assaulting of Capitol Police officers, the makeshift gallows, and “Hang Mike Pence” chants, the rioters yelling “Where’s Nancy [Pelosi]?”, and Trump’s steadfast refusal to condemn the violence.
The full transcript of the speech can be found on the White House’s website. CBS News provided video coverage of the speech below:
For more on Biden’s 2024 campaign, you can read CNN’s coverage here.
For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.
Screengrab: CBS News