Janice R. Andrews
Conservatives are criticizing President Biden for his D-Day anniversary speech at Pointe du Hoc in France, arguing that it was a lot like a well-known statement delivered by President Reagan forty years earlier.
Young Americans for Liberty wrote on X that Biden’s address was “unreal,” drawing parallels with Reagan’s. These views were mirrored on X by OutKick founder Clay Travis and former Wisconsin GOP governor Scott Walker, who accused Biden of plagiarism.
“Why invite a direct comparison with Reagan with whom no president could ever compete in telling this story, much less one as inarticulate as Biden?” asked former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen un response to the choice. Furthermore, according to conservative communicator Steve Guest, “Joe Biden: Once a plagiarist, always a plagiarist.”
Critics pointed out a number of similarities between the talks. Reagan’s opening sentence, “At dawn on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944,” for example, was similar to Biden’s opening statement, “Dawn. Sixth of June, 1944.” Reagan said, “They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up.” Biden said, “They launched their ladders, their ropes and grappling hooks, and they began to climb,” echoing the line from Reagan’s speech.
Politico Playbook revealed a few days prior to the address that Biden’s staff had researched Reagan’s trip in an attempt to have a same effect. The White House has not addressed the backlash in spite of this.
Reflections on democracy were featured in Biden’s speech, with a focus on the difficulties in preserving it: “We talk about democracy, American democracy. We discuss life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness frequently. We rarely discuss how difficult it is, how many times we are asked to give up, or how many times we are naturally inclined to do so.”
The dispute draws attention to the complexity of presidential discourse as well as the persistent ideological divides.
