First lady Jill Biden warned Wednesday against voting for former President Trump, saying “we’ve all lived through” President Biden’s top political rival once before.
“We know what’s in store if these MAGA Republicans win because we’ve all lived through this,” Biden said during a fundraiser for the Biden Victory Fund in Los Angeles.
“Take yourself back in your mind. You remember how U.S. policy was dictated in those late-night tweets. Or how about the constant assault on our most sacred institutions, our democracy and our freedoms, and it’s only going to get worse,” she added, taking a jab at Trump, who notoriously would issue startling claims and sweeping policy statements on Twitter at all hours.
Biden compared Trump to her husband, saying the choice is between “chaos and corruption, hatred and division” or “strong, steady leadership.”
The first lady spoke to a group of about 80 people for the afternoon fundraiser and highlighted the incumbent’s accomplishments so far.
She also sought to convey that he is ready for another four years amid ongoing attacks from Republicans and lingering concerns from some Democrats over his age. The president would be 86 years old at the end of a second term.
“Optimism, that’s what drives my husband, and nothing can slow him down,” she said. “Joe is ready — as he likes to say — to finish the job. So, as we get ready to jump back into a campaign, I cannot even believe I’m already saying this: Think about how far we’ve come in the last three years.”
The first lady has been on a fundraising swing this week. She was in the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday and also warned about reelecting Trump in remarks to donors.
On Monday, she spoke at a closed-door fundraiser in New York, where she mentioned the Trump indictment, making her the first major Biden surrogate to comment on it.
“My heart feels so broken by a lot of the headlines that we see on the news,” she said, according to an Associated Press reporter present. “Like I just saw, when I was on my plane, it said 61 percent of Republicans are going to vote, they would vote for Trump … They don’t care about the indictment. So that’s a little shocking, I think.”
President Biden is heading out for a fundraising swing Friday, starting in Connecticut. He then will travel to Pennsylvania for a political rally and from there to the San Francisco Bay Area for three days.
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