President Joe Biden honored soldiers who lost their lives while fighting for the United States during a speech at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.
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The 46th president focused a significant portion of his address on Monday warning about the risks posed to democracy, a topic that he brought up over the weekend to criticize Republican efforts in Texas to pass voting restrictions and following a 2020 election after which former President Donald Trump and his allies claimed that the contest was stolen despite assurances by federal and state officials that it was secure.
“Between dreams of democracy and appetites for autocracy, which we’re seeing around the world,” Biden said. “Our troops have fought this battle on fields around the world but also the battle of our time, and the mission falls to each of us each and every day. Democracy itself is in peril. Here at home and around the world.“
He said the way people honor “the memory of the fallen will determine whether or not democracy will long endure.”
Biden, who was delivering his first Memorial Day speech as president, also struck a lighter chord when saying that “empathy is the fuel of democracy.”
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“Our willingness to see each other not as enemies, neighbors, even when we disagree, to understand what the other is going through,” he added. “To state the obvious, our democracy isn’t perfect, it always has been, but Americans of all backgrounds, races, creeds, gender identities, sexual orientations have long spilled their blood to defend our democracy.”
On April 13, the Biden administration announced a phased withdrawal of the remaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan that will conclude by Sept. 11 — the 20th anniversary of the conflict.
At one point during his address, Biden pulled a card out of his pocket and noted how many service members had died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“7,036 fallen angels who have lost their lives to these conflicts,” Biden said. “Duty, honor, and country — they lived for it, they died for it, and we as a nation are eternally grateful.”
Prior to his speech, Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, presented a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
