President Joe Biden thanked the American Rangers who stormed Pointe du Hoc in France 80 years ago while touting American democracy in a Friday speech commemorating D-Day.

“These were American Rangers. They were ready,” Biden said from the top of the cliffs they climbed that day, the same site where President Ronald Reagan delivered a Cold War-era speech honoring the soldiers in 1984. “They ran toward the cliffs and mines planted on the beach by Field Marshal Rommel, exploded around them, but still, they kept coming. Nazi grenades thrown from above exploded against the cliffs, but still, they kept coming.”