Biden, Trump, ‘counter-campaign’ in battleground Georgia
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who were virtually confirmed as presidential candidates for the ruling Democratic Party and the opposition Republican Party, respectively, in the November U.S. presidential election, visited Georgia, a major battleground state, on the 9th and held a campaign meeting. In Atlanta, the state capital, President Biden pointed out the bromance (male friendship) between former President Trump and North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un and criticized, “Trump is a threat to democracy.”
On the same day, former President Trump visited Rome, a small city about 113 km from Atlanta, and criticized President Biden’s immigration policy as being overly lenient. This is the constituency of hard-line Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, known as the ‘female Trump’, and is also close to the hometown of Laken Riley, a female college student who was recently murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
Former President Trump is also very encouraged by the fact that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the ‘Trump of Eastern Europe’, visited the United States on the 7th and 8th and only met with him and did not meet President Biden.
View largerⓒNewsisAt a rally in Atlanta on the 9th, President Biden criticized former President Trump for flattering dictators and authoritarian thugs around the world. He then raised his voice, saying, “He said North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un wrote him a beautiful letter, called Chinese President Xi Jinping king, and told Russian President Vladimir Putin to ‘do whatever you want to America’s allies.’” . President Biden also repeatedly criticized Trump in an interview with MSNBC that day, saying, “Trump said he respects Kim Jong-un and praises Putin.”
President Biden’s repeated criticism of former President Trump’s close relationship with strongmen (authoritarian leaders) around the world is interpreted as an intention to drag this presidential election into a confrontation of ‘democracy versus dictatorship.’ In his State of the Union address on the 7th, President Biden criticized former President Trump for “bowing down to Putin.” On the 8th, a campaign essay in his hometown of Pennsylvania also criticized the meeting between former President Trump and Prime Minister Orbán, saying, “Trump is looking for a dictator.”
Prime Minister Orban did not meet any Biden administration officials during this visit to the United States. He visited the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., on the 7th, and met with former President Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort a day later. Prime Minister Orbán said, “Only former President Trump’s return to the White House can bring peace. “If he had won the 2020 presidential election, the war in Ukraine would not have occurred,” he said, praising former President Trump.
Former President Trump also claimed, “The reason Putin threatens with nuclear weapons every day is because he knows that the US President (Biden) is an idiot,” and added, “If only there was a competent president like me, (the US) would be safe.”
The reason that the two current and former presidents held a ‘counter-campaign’ in Georgia on the same day is interpreted as the fact that Georgia is a region that has significant significance not only four years ago but also in this presidential election. At the time, President Biden defeated former President Trump by a 0.23 percentage point gap here.
Accordingly, former President Trump was criminally indicted by federal prosecutors last year for urging the then Secretary of State to “overturn the results of the presidential election.” Former President Trump criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policy on the 9th, saying, “Riley was murdered because Biden intentionally released illegal immigrants.” On the 8th, on the social media platform ‘Truth Social’, he criticized President Biden’s State of the Union address and posted the remark, “This guy is a PSYCHO!”
President Biden also chose a campaign location with deep ties to former President Trump. The large concert hall in Atlanta he chose, ‘Pullman Yard’, is close to the Fulton County Detention Center, where former President Trump, who was indicted on charges of overturning the 2020 presidential election, appeared in person in August of last year and took a ‘mug shot (photo for identification of the suspect)’.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.