President Joe Biden joined a variety of world leaders in France yesterday and marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Evidently Sen. Rick Scott wasn’t impressed.
After a Fox Business host accused the Democrat of “taking veiled shots” at Donald Trump, the Florida Republican reflected on his father’s World War II service before concluding:
“This should not be a political event. This should be a commemoration that people that put their lives on the line. … There shouldn’t be anything political in this at all today. It’s really disgusting what Biden has done.”
For the record, the incumbent president didn’t mention his predecessor. Biden also didn’t reference Republicans or any political party.
Rather, the Democrat emphasized a variety of core principles, including the idea that democracy is worth fighting for.
“In memory of those who fought here, died here, literally saved the world here, let us be worthy of their sacrifice,” Biden said. “Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time — in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now — it will be said: When the moment came, we met the moment. We stood strong. Our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well.
In the same remarks in Colleville-sur-Mer, the incumbent president added, “America has invested in our alliances and forged new ones — not simply out of altruism but out of our own self-interest as well. America’s unique ability to bring countries together is an undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago, and it is not the answer today.”
Biden went on to say, “We’re living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since … these beaches were stormed in 1944. Now, we have to ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny, against evil, against crushing brutality of the iron fist? Will we stand for freedom? Will we defend democracy? Will we stand together? My answer is yes. And it only can be yes.”
To be sure, I’m mindful of the circumstances. In the United States, it’s an election season and the incumbent president is poised to be on the ballot, which he’ll share with his immediate predecessor — who’s increasingly brazen about his overt affinity for authoritarians and authoritarianism. When Biden defends and celebrates democracy, his words do not exist in a political vacuum; they carry a broader significance.
But given what the Democrat actually said, and the principles the president touted, if Scott sincerely found his speech “disgusting,” that says far more about the far-right senator than it does about the president.
