Biden To Speak of "Enormous Stakes in 2024" in Charleston

(The Guardian) Joe Biden is now at the Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, where long-serving Democratic congressman Jim Clyburn is introducing the president.

Clyburn has focused on Biden’s efforts to relieve some federal student loans, noting the roles Donald Trump and Republican attorneys general nationwide played in blocking his plan.

“Four years ago, this country was faced with a crisis. Four years ago, presidential candidate Joe Biden offered himself to the American people and he made a lot of promises and commitments. Among them he would bring relief to those who have become burdened with student loan debt. And he has done so,” Clyburn said.

He contrasted that with the Trump administration’s denial of student debt relief to public servants who would have been eligible for it under a law Congress approved.

“When I first became majority whip, we passed the law back in 2007 to give loan forgiveness to individuals who would work in public service for 10 years and paid their loans faithfully. When people started to hit that 10 year mark, it was 2017, and we know who occupied the White House. In 2017, people started to hit the 10-year mark Trump was president and implemented, the program was blocked and almost no one got loan forgiveness. Joe Biden took office in 2021 and changed that,” Clyburn said.

(The Guardian) Joe Biden takes stage at Charleston's Mother Emanuel church
Joe Biden is now speaking at the Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, where he is expected to warn of the threat to American democracy posed by Donald Trump’s campaign for president.

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This is Joe Biden’s second campaign speech of the year, and like his first, held on Friday in Pennsylvania, he took the stage to chants from the audience of “Four more years!”

The president is also set to continue the change of tactics he debuted last week, when he directly attacked Donald Trump and his allies. Biden had in months prior generally focused on his administration’s accomplishments, while dedicating less of his rhetorical emphasis to the former president and his Maga movement.

(The Guardian) Biden calls 2020 election denialism 'the second Lost Cause'
With the interruption by protesters behind him, Joe Biden has warned that the effort by Donald Trump and his allies to insist, without evidence, that the 2020 election was fraudulent amounts to a “second Lost Cause”.

In American history, the Lost Cause is used to refer to a belief that the Confederacy’s secession was justified, and not tied to the preservation of slavery. Most historians regard the theory as not supported by facts.

“Now, we’re living in an era of a second Lost Cause,” Biden said. “Once again, for some of this country trying, trying to turn a loss into a lie, a lie which, if allowed live, once again, (will) bring terrible damage to this country at this time. A lie that’s about the 2020 election.”

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Trump 'a loser' for not accepting 2020 election result – Biden
Joe Biden again attacked Donald Trump for refusing to accept that he lost the 2020 election, and called him “a loser”.

“There’s one thing they don’t have. They don’t have respect for the 81 million people who voted the other way, voted for my candidacy,” Biden said, of Trump and his allies, who continue to push baseless claims of election fraud.

“In their world, these Americans, including you, don’t count, but that’s not the real world. That’s not democracy. That’s not America,” he said. Biden went on to argue that in the country, “losers are taught to concede when they lose. He’s a loser.”