State of the Union 2024: Joe Biden attacks Donald Trump in fiery election year speech
- Biden uses State of the Union to contrast with Trump, sell voters on a second term
- Republican Trump, 77, has a narrow lead over 81-year-old Biden in opinion polls
US President Joe Biden launched a scorching attack on his “dangerous” November presidential election rival Donald Trump in Thursday’s State of the Union address, warning that US democracy is under “assault”.
In the dramatic start to the speech, Biden said he wanted to “wake up the Congress and alert the American people” to the danger.
“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War, have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today,” he said. “What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack at both at home and overseas.”
Then homing in on Trump, he said the Republican was “bowing down” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He vowed to cheers from Democrats: “I will not bow down”.
Letting the punches fly, Biden never said Trump’s name, instead referring repeatedly to him as “my predecessor, a former Republican president.”