Biden compares fight against Hitler to resisting Putin in Normandy remarks – live | US news

Joe Biden compared the storming of the beaches of Normandy, which led to the Allied victory over the Nazis in Europe, with the campaign against Russia Vladimir Putin.

“Every Marine who stormed those beaches decided that the fearsome dictator who had conquered a continent had finally met himself. Because of them, the war turned. They stood up to Hitler’s aggression,” Biden said.

He then turned to the challenges of today:

Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up to Putin’s aggression here in Europe today? They stormed the beaches along with their allies. Does anyone believe that these Rangers want America to go it alone today?

They fought to defeat a hateful ideology in the 1930s and 1940s. Does anyone doubt that they would not move heaven and earth to defeat today’s hateful ideologies? These Rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone believe he would want less than any American today?

These rangers remembered with reverence those who had given their lives in battle. Could they or anyone else ever imagine that America would not do the same?

Biden began by recounting the D-Day effort by U.S. Army Rangers to seize Point du Hoc, where they believed the Nazi artillery that could threaten the Normandy landings was located.

“All they knew was that time was of the essence and only 30 minutes, 30 minutes to eliminate the guns high up on that rock, guns that could stop the Allied invasion before it even started,” Biden said .

He told the tale:

These were American Rangers. They were ready. They ran towards the rocks and mines laid on the beach by a field marshal… Rommel exploded around them, but they kept coming. Shots rained down on them, but they kept coming. Grenades thrown from above exploded in the rock but kept coming. In minutes they reached the base of this rock. They let go of the ladders, ropes and hooks and began to climb. When the Nazis cut their ladders, the Rangers used the ropes. When the Nazis cut the ropes, the Rangers used their hands, and inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, the clawed Rangers literally jammed their way up this mighty chasm until they reached the top.

Now Biden is at the podium.

He was wearing his aviators, but he just took them off.

Joe Biden has appeared and will soon begin his speech on democracy at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy.

He is about 40 minutes late to start the address. Cameras show the president walking along the edge of the nose, along with what appears to be a local official or guide, and point to Biden’s features.

Beyond marking the anniversary of D-Day, Joe Biden used his visit to Normandy to rally support for Ukraine. Today, on the Guardian Angelique Chrysaphis reports that he apologized to Volodymyr Zelensky for the delay in receiving military aid to the country:

US President Joe Biden publicly apologized to the Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelenskyon the months of delays in US military aid that allowed Russia to win on the battlefield, and announced a further $225m (£177m) in military aid to Ukraine.

Meeting with Zelensky in Paris on Friday, Biden told him: “You didn’t bow down, you didn’t give in at all, you keep fighting in a way that is … just remarkable. We will not walk away from you.

Biden said, “I apologize for those weeks where I didn’t know” what was going to happen in terms of funding. He was referring to the uncertainty as Congress waits six months before sending a $61 billion military aid package to Ukraine in April. “Some of our very conservative members [of Congress] they held him. But we finally did it,” he added.

Biden said the American people are standing aside Ukraine for long distances. “We’re still inside. Completely. Diligently.”

In his forthcoming speech from the Norman Point du Hoc, Joe Biden will remind Americans and the world how difficult maintaining a democracy can be.

“When we talk about democracy — American democracy — we often talk about big ideas like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What we don’t talk about enough is how hard it is,” the president will say, according to excerpts released by the White House.

“American democracy requires the most difficult of things: believing that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. So democracy starts with each one of us.

We are minutes from Joe Biden giving a speech on the coast of Normandy, where the White House says the theme will be democracy — meaning the president can take more pictures, veiled or overt, of Donald Trump and his authoritarian plans.

Biden will speak from Pointe du Hoc, a strategic promontory that was a key target for American forces during the D-Day invasion and gained renewed attention four decades later when Ronald Reagan delivered a remarkable address from the point. Here’s more on that from the Guardian Dan Sabag:

On Friday, Biden is scheduled to speak at Pointe du Hoc, where 80 years ago, 225 US Rangers scaled 100-foot sheer cliffs using rope ladders launched over the top to capture a strategically placed artillery bunker. It was perhaps the most dangerous single mission on D-Day and casualties were heavy. Only 90 were still able to fight when a count was taken a few days later.

There is almost certainly another reason for the location of Biden’s address, given that the US president has an election to fight. Forty years ago, the Republican president, Ronald Reagan, spoke on the rocks of the same battleground, and to an audience of military veterans, he justified the day’s struggle in terms not clearly recognizable in Donald Trump’s Republican worldview.

“We in America have learned the bitter lessons of two world wars: it is better to be here ready to defend the peace than to blindly seek shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after liberty is lost,” declared Reagan — very different from Trump has commented that he would refuse to protect NATO members who do not spend enough on defense, regardless of previous threats to leave the alliance altogether.

Joe Biden yesterday he gave an interview to ABC News during his visit to France. The President was in Normandy to mark 80th anniversary of D-Day, but American politics is never far from his mind, and Biden was asked about the executive order he signed before leaving Washington this week, which will close the US southern border to new asylum seekers when it becomes “overloaded.”

Interviewer David Moore wanted biden’s reaction to comments from Donald Trump that the order was “weak and pitiful”. The president took the opportunity to do something he and his re-election campaign have done with increasing frequency: insult the former president. Here’s what Biden said:

Is he describing himself? Weak and pathetic? Come on, look, everyone knows what happened. We had an agreement, it was much broader than that, much better, much more accepted, across the board, and he got on the phone and told the Republicans, don’t support it. It will hurt me, it will help Biden.

He means the february episode in which Trump intervened with Republicans to get them to scuttle a bipartisan compromise to tighten immigration policy — reportedly so he could campaign to fix the problem himself if elected.

Biden’s comments are also a sign that the president isn’t holding back on taking a swipe at Trump, who since 2015 has been known for his willingness to call people names. Earlier this year, on the Guardian Adam Gabatt I looked at the strategy:

Good morning, US policy blog readers.

yesterday, Steve BannonA nearly two-year effort to avoid jail time for opposing a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack appeared to have come to an end when – the judge ordered him to begin his four-month prison sentence by July 1. Bannon was a former White House senior adviser Donald Trump and instrumental in crafting his Maga ideology. In response to the decision of the judge exp published to Truth Social that committee members should be indicted. Add this to the list of things Trump has threatened to do so if he returns to the White House.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is in France to take part in events to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. in an interview yesterday with ABC News, he was asked on Trump’s comment that his order this week to curb the flow of asylum seekers was “weak and pathetic”. “Is he describing himself?” shot the president.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• Biden is set to speak at 10 a.m. ET about democracy at Pointe du Hoc, a promontory on the coast of Normandy where a fierce battle took place on D-Day.

• The US economy added 272,000 jobs in May, far more than expected, although unemployment rose slightly. Read more here.

• Trump sat down for an interview with a television personality Dr. Phil — seemingly in front of the scene at Mar-a-Lago where classified documents were found, such as the Biden campaign is willing to point out.