WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Friday at the site of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, that those who support democracy must remember the sacrifices of World War II soldiers and live up to those ideals.
Biden made the remarks as he commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day, seeking to link the threats to democracy in the 1940s with those that exist in the United States and Europe today.
“American democracy requires the hardest thing of all: to believe that we are part of something bigger than ourselves,” Biden said. “That’s why democracy begins with each of us.”
Biden spoke from the Ranger Monument in Pointe du Hoc, where former President Ronald Reagan was killed in 1984 gave a memorable speech on the 40th anniversary of the invasion.
The monumentBuilt by the French, it is located 13 kilometers west of the Normandy American Cemetery and was built in honor of the members of the American Second Ranger Battalion.
Biden delivered the speech alongside Scott Desjardins, director of the Normandy American Cemetery, who later told reporters that he had spoken to the president about the battle.
“I explained to him that the Rangers told us when we were alive that climbing the cliff was not the hard part,” Desjardins told White House reporters. “To stay on that terrain for two and a half days, outnumbered, is really the amazing thing about Pointe du Hoc.”
First Sergeant Gavin Stith, 2nd Ranger Battalion, U.S. Army, and his wife, Kourtney Stith, attended the speech along with about 150 other people. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were also in attendance.
Pfc John M. Wardell99, of New Jersey, who landed in France on June 18, 1944, was also in the audience and spoke with Blinken, according to pool reports.
Fighting against dictators
Biden said during the 12-minute speech The soldiers who stormed the beach in 1944 had come to the conclusion that it was necessary to confront a dictator who threatened democracy in Europe and that people today must live up to that standard.
“Does anyone doubt that they would want America to stand up against [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin’s aggression here in Europe today?” Biden asked.
“They fought to defeat a hateful ideology in the ’30s and ’40s,” Biden added. “Does anyone doubt that they wouldn’t move heaven and earth to defeat the hateful ideologies of today? These Rangers put mission and country above themselves. Does anyone think they would ask less of every American today?”
Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the day and announced a $225 million aid package for the country to support it fight the Russian invasion.
Biden told Zelensky during the meeting that his country’s efforts to win the war were “remarkable” and apologized for the long time it took Congress to approve the latest round of military and humanitarian aid.
“I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what was going to happen in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill passed that we had to pass that contained the money,” Biden said during the meeting with Zelensky. “Some of our very conservative members held it up. But we finally got it done.”
“Being part of something bigger than ourselves”
In his speech at Pointe du Hoc, Biden said that the Allied soldiers who climbed the cliffs on D-Day, all of whom are now dead, would today call on every American to “remain true to what America stands for.”
“They are not asking us to give or risk our lives, but they are asking us to care more about others in our country than ourselves,” Biden said. “They are not asking us to do their job. They are asking us to do our job; to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to defend ourselves against aggression foreign and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves.”
If Americans want to honor the sacrifices of our country’s soldiers in World War II, they must “ensure that our democracy and the soul of our nation endure,” he said.
Biden did not mention the likely Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, by name, but Democrats have repeatedly stressed that they believe Trump poses a threat to democracy.
Biden spoke Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery near Omaha Beach, about the courage of the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day and the Allied forces who worked together to defeat Nazi Germany and end the Holocaust.
