Joe Biden has warned that his presidential successor, Donald Trump, will try to “steal” the midterm elections, in what is a rare public speech for him.
Speaking in South Carolina, where he was honored for his lifetime of achievements in politics, Biden also claimed the US is facing “dark days,” in a speech delivered hours before the Trump administration launched attacks on Iran.
Biden is repeating a line from the 2020 campaign in which he defeated Trump and ended his first presidency. the crowd told at the Columbia Museum of Art Friday that the “battle for the soul of this nation is one that is never truly over.” At the same time, he criticized Trump’s plan to implement potentially unaffordable voting requirements before the midterm elections.
“Here’s the good news,” Biden continued. “In America, for now, power still belongs to the people. And the way to show power is to vote, show up and vote. And folks, if we do that, it’s bad news for Donald Trump, and he knows it.
“That’s why he’s trying to remove more and more barriers – putting them up. He’s trying to steal the election because he knows he can’t win your vote, so he’s going to do everything he can to keep you from wanting to vote.”
Biden, 83, has largely stayed out of the public eye since leaving office and undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He did not discuss his health on Friday as he criticized Trump for his recent State of the Union address and the immigration crackdown in which federal agents killed U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January.
“He doesn’t mention Renee Good, Alex Pretti… [or] even offer a word of comfort to their families,” Biden said.
Biden also noted that Trump uttered “not a word of support, not even an acknowledgment” during his speech to the victims of sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who reportedly committed suicide while in federal custody in 2019. Trump was one of several former powerful friends Epstein had.
Biden’s speech came at a time when Trump’s popularity is at an all-time low. Earlier in February, the Associated Press-Norc Center for Public Affairs Research found that 61% of Americans do this disapprove of his performance, while a NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll recently it emerged that most American adults think Trump is moving the country in the wrong direction.
Biden abandoned his 2024 re-election campaign after a disastrous debate performance in June of that year. He backed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to succeed him, but Trump ultimately defeated her to return to the White House later that year.
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