(CN) — President Joe Biden will not put his record at the forefront of his reelection campaign, instead highlighting the threat Republican Donald Trump would cause to the “defense, protection and preservation of American democracy.”
Biden focused solely on Trump in his remarks Friday to kick off campaigning near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, a key site in Revolutionary War lore.
“Democracy is on the ballot,” he told the crowd. “Your freedom is on the ballot.”
Center to his speech was the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which occurred after Trump urged supporters to stop the certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the election and his role in the insurrection.
“His lies brought a mob to Washington,” Biden said. “He promised it would be wild and it was. He told the crowd to fight like hell and all hell was unleashed. He promised he would be side by side with them. Then, as usual, he left the dirty work to others and retreated to the White House.”
Trump hasn’t technically won the Republican nomination, but is consistently miles ahead of his competitors. In polls between Dec. 4 and Jan. 2, he averaged 62.7%, with former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley a distant second at 11% followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 10.9%.
Pennsylvania is always a key battleground state in the Electoral College and according to the Commonwealth Foundation, a fiscally conservative think tank, the state’s voters care more about the economy than Jan. 6.
“The Commonwealth Foundation's polling has consistently shown that inflation, jobs, and the economy are Pennsylvanians’ top concerns,” Jennifer Stefano, the foundation’s executive vice president, said in a press release. “As the president spends time in our commonwealth today, he should be aware that most Pennsylvanians feel our country is on the wrong track.”
But Biden didn’t discuss the economy, inflation or his record in office. And while foreign policy is at the top of his agenda for his final year in office, Biden used the speech to portray himself as the only option to keep the United States from sliding into a dictatorship under Trump.
“The defense, protection and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency,” he said.
Biden called democracy “America’s sacred cause.”
“The choice is clear,” he said. “Donald Trump’s campaign is about him. Not America. Not you. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy.”
As the election looms, Trump has a slight edge in head-to-head polling at 46.5% to Biden’s 44.3%.
Only one recent poll has taken a wider breadth of candidates into consideration, including Trump, Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West — who are mounting independent runs — former Penthouse magazine owner Lars Mapstead for the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein for the Green Party.
That poll, taken between Dec. 26 and Dec. 29, has Trump at 37%, Biden at 34%, Kennedy at 10%, West and Mapstead at 2% and Stein at 1%.
The Libertarians received ballot access in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the past two presidential elections, while the Green party has not appeared in all states so far. Kennedy has only gained access in Utah and West has only been placed on Alaska’s ballot.
Biden's appearance capped a quiet week, with no public appearances between his Tuesday return from the U.S. Virgin Islands and Friday’s event. He will travel Monday to Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine people were killed in a June 2015 white supremacist shooting.
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