In a Friday statement to mark D-Day, President Joe Biden thanked the American Rangers who stormed Pointe du Hoc in France 80 times before while praising American politics.
” These were American Rangers. From the top of the cliffs that day, where President Ronald Reagan honored the soldiers in 1984 in a speech honoring them, Biden said,” They were ready” ” They ran toward the cliffs and mine planted on the shore by Field Marshal Rommel, exploded around them, but still, they kept coming. Nazi explosives thrown from below exploded against the rocks, but nevertheless, they kept coming”.
World War II senior John Wardell, 99, from New Jersey, was seated in the front row of the crowd beside Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The leader will travel to France this week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Normandy’s war, or D-Day. On Thursday, he made a visit to a graveyard where many of the Rangers who perished in the conflict were interred.
” Now, as we look out at this battle, at all the pits and bomb holes that are still surrounded, one thought comes to mind,’ My God, how did they would it?'” Biden said. ” How were these Americans willing to risk all”?
While thanking the military for their courage, Biden also touched on current activities, including the conflict in Ukraine and, gently, this season’s elections.
” When we talk about politics, American democracy, we generally talk huge ideas like life, liberty, and the attainment of happiness”, the president said. What we do n’t talk about enough is how difficult it is.
” American democracy asks the hardest of things: to feel that we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves”, he continued. But democracy begins with each of us.
Late in the speech, Biden spoke of “ensur]ing ] that our democracy endures and that the soul of our nation endures”. He calls the campaigns for 2020 and 2022 “battle for the heart of the country” and calls former US president Donald Trump a danger to democracy.
According to aides before the event, the senator was attempting to network Reagan. The conversation after featured in Reagan’s successful election campaign.
Biden added that the soldiers who stormed Normandy had back Ukraine in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that they would reject protectionism.
Does anyone fear that Putin’s aggression in Europe is what they would like America to confront? Biden said. They stormed the shores with our allies, they said. Does anyone think that these Rangers “want America to go it alone now”?
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Biden concluded by saying that Pointe du Hoc’s memory was n’t enough.
” We have to talk to them”, he said. We must utter a solemn pledge to never let them down. God thank the fallen. God’s blessings to the brave men who climbed these mountains, and may God defend our soldiers. God thank America”.
