Trump responds to Biden’s speech calling him a threat to democracy

Hours after President Biden attacked former President Donald J. Trump as an anti-democratic threat to America’s founding ideals, Mr. Trump responded by accusing Mr. Biden of “pathetic fear-mongering.”

At a campaign event in Sioux Center, Iowa, just 10 days before the state’s caucuses, Mr. Trump suggested that Mr. Biden’s speech, aimed at laying out the stakes of the 2024 election, was intended to divert attention from the issues. such as the economy and the border.

Mr. Biden “cannot talk about a single issue that matters to hardworking Americans because he has failed you and betrayed you,” Mr. Trump said.

The former president, who is facing criminal charges for his role in the efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election and the subsequent January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Mr. Trump’s supporters, which forced the peaceful transition of power was disrupted, argued that Mr. Biden was “abusing the legacy of George Washington” by delivering his remarks near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where Washington led troops during the Revolutionary War.

He also mocked Mr Biden’s speech, suggesting he stuttered during his speech. Mr Biden is the first modern president to stutter, which he has dealt with since childhood.

Trump was already scheduled to hold two campaign events in Iowa on Friday and two on Saturday, the third anniversary of the Capitol riot, when Mr. Biden announced his own remarks. The president focused heavily on Mr. Trump’s actions leading up to and during the attack, portraying Mr. Trump as the leader of an insurrection and a threat to democracy.

Mr. Trump, whose authoritarian-sounding rhetoric and radical plans for a possible second term have been seized on by his opponents, has been claiming for weeks that it is Mr. Biden who poses the threat. During Friday’s speech, Trump again accused Mr. Biden of using federal law enforcement to attack his political opponents, although there is no evidence that Mr. Biden has been involved in any of the four criminal cases against him.

“They’ve armed the government, and he says I’m a threat to democracy,” Trump said incredulously.