POINTE DU HOC — With the beaches of Normandy as a backdrop, President Biden asserted Friday that the fight for democracy in Ukraine and elsewhere remains as important as the day American troops saved Europe from Hitler’s tyranny.
On a sunny afternoon overlooking the Utah and Omaha coasts, the president recalled the “Ghosts of Pointe du Hoc” of Army Rangers scaling the cliffs under fierce German artillery fire, and drew connections between the struggle for freedom during World War II and the current struggle for democracy in Ukraine and at the polls across the country.
“We are gathered here today not only to honour the men and women who showed incredible courage on that day, June 6, 1944, but to hear the echoes of their voices. To listen to them. Because they are calling to us,” he said in a televised address.
“They’re not asking us to climb these cliffs,” Biden added, standing atop a German concrete bunker overlooking the English Channel, “They’re asking us to stay true to American ideals.”
But the gravity of his challenge became clear early on Friday: His call for American resolve to defend democracy came just hours after he felt compelled to apologize to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for months of delays in delivering vital U.S. military aid because of political impasses in Washington.
Speaking in Paris before flying to Normandy, Mr. Biden blamed House Republicans for the delays in funding, which he said have frustrated the Ukrainian people and helped Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and his troops turn the tide on the battlefield more than two years after a full-scale invasion.
“I apologize for not knowing for weeks what was going to pass on the funding side because we had a hard time getting a bill through that included the money that we needed to pass,” Biden told Zelensky, adding, “Some very conservative members of Congress were holding it up.”
The president’s speech at Pont-du-Hoc was his second in two days marking the anniversary of the Normandy landings, and echoed an iconic speech given at the same venue in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, who similarly called for American leadership and democracy on the world stage at a time of rising isolationist tensions at home.
Biden’s “ghosts of Pointe du Hoc” seems a deliberate allusion to Reagan’s famous “the boys of Pointe du Hoc” line.
The speech straddled the line between a patriotic anniversary and an implicit political speech, contrasting his views on America’s role in the world with those of his Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump. Without mentioning Trump by name, Biden suggested that the 225 rangers who charged onto the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, none of whom are still alive, would have supported his fight against Trump’s politics.
“They fought to defeat the hateful ideology of the ’30s and ’40s,” Biden said. “Does anyone doubt that they would do whatever it takes to defeat the hateful ideology of today?”
“Does anyone doubt that America wants to stand up against President Putin’s acts of aggression in Europe today?” he added.
Biden’s central message as he challenges Trump for a second term is to argue that his predecessor poses a serious threat to the fundamental democratic ideals that have characterized U.S. government for more than two centuries. And on foreign policy, in contrast to Biden, Trump has expressed friendlier feelings toward Putin than toward Ukraine and NATO allies.
After six months of lobbying by Biden, Congress finally passed a $61 billion bailout package for Ukraine in April, and the arms deliveries were resumed. Biden announced the disbursement of $225 million in aid on Friday, telling Zelensky it was to “help rebuild the power grid.”
In fact, he appears to have misspoken: Aides later said the latest funding was for a suite of weapons, including air defenses, that could protect energy infrastructure badly degraded by persistent Russian attacks, but not rebuild the power grid.
Biden pledged to continue supporting Ukraine’s war effort, calling Ukraine “a bulwark against ongoing aggression. We’re still fully engaged.”
Zelensky thanked the president for the recent decision to allow limited use of U.S. weapons against targets in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, saying the U.S. decision had a “very positive impact.” But he added that “you still need to hear some details from us about the battlefield,” suggesting he remains frustrated by the constraints still placed on the use of U.S. weapons.
The latest shift in nuclear weapons policy comes after more than two years of restrictions aimed at avoiding escalating tensions with nuclear-armed Russia. But Biden only relaxed the restrictions enough to authorize strikes on military targets just across the border in northeastern Ukraine to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Long-range strikes deep into Russia remain banned.
The meeting and Biden’s declaration of support came at a critical juncture in the war with Russia, as both allies seek ways to reverse battlefield momentum that has led Putin’s military to greater success this year.
Zelenskiy thanked Biden for the “tremendous support” of U.S. troops in the fight against Russia and likened the U.S. effort to the fight against Hitler 80 years ago.
“During World War II, the United States saved lives and helped save Europe,” Zelenskiy said. “We count on you to continue to support us and stand with us shoulder to shoulder. Thank you very much.”
While Biden did not fulfill all of Zelensky’s wishes, he did reverse the plan to launch U.S. weapons. Russia’s tactic, supported by other NATO nations, predictably provoked an irritated response from Putin, who threatened retaliatory measures.
Speaking to reporters in St. Petersburg this week, Putin suggested that such a move meant Russia had the “right to send such weapons to parts of the world where they can attack sensitive installations of any country that launches an attack against Russia.”
Biden’s meeting with Zelenskiy was the first of two he plans to hold over the next few days after he also meets his Ukrainian counterpart at the G7 summit in Italy next week.
“This demonstrates our deep commitment to Ukraine at this critical time,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters this week. “The opportunity for the president and Mr. Zelensky to meet twice will be an opportunity for the two of them to have a real in-depth discussion about all aspects of the war and all the issues.”
But Ukrainians are disappointed that Biden will not attend a peace summit that Zelensky is hosting in Switzerland on June 15. Vice President Kamala Harris and Sullivan are also expected to attend instead.
But at Normandy on Friday, Biden stressed unity and urged Americans and the world not to forget the courage of those who defended and defended the values that free people now enjoy.
Of the 225 soldiers who landed at Pointe du Hoc that day 80 years ago, only 90 managed to escape on foot, most of them wounded.
“We are the fortunate ones to carry the legacy of those heroes who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc,” Biden said. “We must also be the guardians of their mission. We must be the bearers of the flame of freedom that they kept burning brightly. That is the truest testimony to their lives.”
