In his first campaign clip, Joe Biden warns of “extreme” threat to democracy

The spot will be broadcast for the first time on television on Saturday, exactly three years after the attack by Donald Trump supporters in Washington.

“We must all ask ourselves today: what are we going to do to maintain our democracy?” The campaign team of Joe Biden, 81, released a first television spot on Thursday January 4 for the re-election of the American president in 2024, warning of the threat “extreme” for democracy by broadcasting images of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The commercial, titled “Because”, will be broadcast for the first time on television on Saturday, exactly three years after the attack by Donald Trump supporters in Washington which cost the lives of five people. “Something dangerous is happening in the United States. There is an extremist movement that does not share the fundamental values ​​of our democracy,” he said in the video released Thursday on social networks.

Donald Trump’s name not mentioned

In the nearly one-minute spot, Joe Biden at no point mentions Donald Trump, his Republican rival whom he beat in 2020.

But against a backdrop of dramatic music, the clip shows several images of pro-Trump signs held by his supporters on the day of the Capitol invasion, a hangman’s rope brought by the rioters, as well as photos of white supremacists carrying torches during from a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Biden’s campaign team is increasingly portraying the election as a fight for American democracy against the Trump threat. The Democratic president is expected to deliver a speech along the same lines on Friday during a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Current polls show that the two contenders for the White House are neck and neck, even as Donald Trump faces several trials, including one over the January 6 assault.