Biden calls on moderate Republicans and independents to join Democrats in saving democracy

In his first speech of the new year, President Joe Biden ramped up his attacks on Donald Trump and sounded the alarm that democracy and freedom are at stake in this year’s election.

"We are here to answer the most important of questions: Is democracy still America’s sacred cause?" Biden said. "This isn’t rhetorical, academic, or hypothetical. Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time."

With a not-so-subtle choice of a location near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, meant to evoke George Washington’s fight for democracy − and his own attempt to protect it − Biden marked the third anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

But as he hits the campaign trail in what is expected to be a brutal rematch against his predecessor, Biden told voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania that safeguarding American institutions would require a broad coalition of voters.

"Those MAGA voices who know the truth about Trump on January 6th have abandoned the truth and abandoned our democracy," he said. "They’ve made their choice. Now the rest of us – Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans – we have to make our choice."

It's exactly independent voters that Biden needs to convince that Trump is a threat.

A poll last month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed independents are split: 54% of independents said a second Trump term would negatively affect U.S. democracy vs. 56% who believe democracy would be weakened by another Biden win.

Biden hammered Trump, and his supporters, over election denialism.

"Donald Trump's campaign is about him. Not America, not you. Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power," he said. “Trump lost recount after recount after recount and state after state. But in desperation and weakness, Trump and his MAGA followers went after election officials."

"In America, our leaders don’t hold on to power relentlessly. Our leaders return power to the people , and they do it willingly," he added.

Biden went on to criticize Trump for calling the Jan. 6 rioters "patriots."

"He called these insurrectionist - patriots and he promised to pardon them if he returns to office." Calling Trump "election-denier-in-chief," Biden charged that Trump was "trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election."

"Trump's mob wasn't a peaceful protest. It was a violent of assault. They were insurrectionists, not patriots. They weren't there to uphold the Constitution," he said. "They were there to destroy the Constitution. You can't love your country only when you win."

Biden said the question was about the soul of the nation.

"We all know who Donald Trump is. The question we have to answer is: Who are we? That's what's at stake."

In a call with reporters earlier this week, Julie Chávez Rodríguez, campaign manager for their re-election effort, said the American people voted for President Biden and Vice President Harris's vision “for more freedom, not less.”

“They voted to preserve our democracy. But on January 6th, 2021, we witnessed a very different vision of America,” she said. “One defined by revenge, retribution, and rebuke of our very democracy.”

The Jan. 6 attack, which happened at the urging of Trump, saw 2000 rioters launching a violent attack on the capitol as Congress certified the election college vote, she added.

Scheduled originally for Jan. 6, Biden’s event at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, was moved up because of weather concerns.

On Monday, Biden will give a speech about the dangers of political violence at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine parishioners were shot to death in 2015 by a white supremacist.

With voters continuing to feel dour about the economy, Biden campaign seems more focused on drawing a contrast between the two candidates than a referendum on his record.

A USA Today/Suffolk University Poll released Thursday showed not only a deeply held lack of faith in election integrity among GOP voters but also fears among voters across the political spectrum about threats to America's democracy.

A majority of Trump supporters – 52% – said they had no confidence that results of the 2024 election would be accurately counted and reported. Two-thirds (67%) of those supporting Trump said they didn't believe Biden had been legitimately elected in 2020, a debunked assertion that Trump has continued to trumpet at rallies and on social media.

The same poll showed Trump narrowly edging Biden 39% to 37%.

Biden, hobbled by low approval ratings, has ramped up his criticism of Trump in recent weeks, saying the former president’s description of his political opponents as “vermin” and his statements that migrants are “poisoning the blood of the country” echo the language from Nazi Germany.

But Biden’s attacks on Trump have usually come at political rallies where the public at large would not hear them. His decision to aggressively go after Trump in public signals a more combative approach just as the first voters are about to head to the polls. Voters in Iowa will cast their ballots in the first-in-the-nation caucuses on Jan. 15.

Meanwhile, Trump used the four criminal indictments against him to call Biden a “destroyer of American democracy” last month for going after his political opponents “like a Third World political tyrant.”

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY.  You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden looks to independent voters, moderate GOP for support