The US president is due to deliver a rare primetime speech — 8:00 p.m. local, 00:00 GMT — on “the ongoing battle for the soul of the nation.”
He will speak near the building where the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution were adopted.
On a more tactical level, Pennsylvania, this eastern state where Philadelphia is located and which Joe Biden will visit no less than three times in one week, may hold the key to the legislative elections in November.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre has already promised offensive statements: the 79-year-old Democrat “believes that an extremist threat weighs on our democracy”, she said on Wednesday during the his daily press briefing.
And this “threat” has a name: “MAGA” or “ultra-MAGA” Republicans, who subscribe to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” ideology.
“They simply do not respect the rule of law”, continued the White House spokeswoman, even quoting, something very unusual in the famous “James Brady Press Briefing Room”, the names of certain elected Republicans who launched calls for violence against public figures.
“The President believes, and that is the reason for this prime-time speech, that there is…a majority of Americans who believe that we must…save core values. of our country,” said Karine Jean-Pierre.
Joe Biden returns to a refrain sung in August 2017, in a contribution published by The Atlantic magazine.
“We are living a battle for the soul of the nation,” he wrote then, after seeing the ultra-right parading in Charlottesville (Virginia, south). Which, he says, made him decide to run for the presidency.
Once at the White House, this veteran politician initially felt that the “battle” would be waged through dialogue, in particular with willing elected Conservatives, and by dint of concrete, economic and social policies, in favor of the middle class.
But faced with a Republican Party over which Donald Trump has kept a huge hold, the open air of reconciliation has been muted.
On the contrary, each favorable poll seems to convince Joe Biden to let go more, he who recently accused supporters of Donald Trump of adhering to an ideology of “semi-fascism”.
– Surveys –
The latest Quinnipiac University opinion poll, released Wednesday, credits him with 40% favorable opinions. This remains very low, but it is much more than the 31% recorded in July.
Moreover, according to the same survey, 67% of Americans now believe that their democracy is in danger. Against 58% when the question was asked in January.
The Democrats are dreaming of a feat in the November elections. This mid-term ballot, which renews the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate, is traditionally unfavorable to the party represented in the White House.
But there you are, there is a lull on the inflation front, a series of reforms promoted by Joe Biden finally adopted with forceps by Congress, the cascading investigations and revelations about Donald Trump and, above all, the anti- abortion of the Republican Party which seem to turn against him.
Enough to give hope to the party of the president, to which it will be difficult to keep the House of Representatives, to keep at least its majority in the Senate, or even to strengthen it.
And it goes through Pennsylvania. Joe Biden has already been there on Tuesday and he is due to return on Monday to celebrate Labor Day with Democratic contender John Fetterman.
Donald Trump has planned an appearance in this courted state on Saturday, to support his candidate in this race, Mehmet Oz.
