Joe Biden has spent the past few days in France to observe the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. His performance on Thursday went viral after his odd behavior left many questioning whether the octogenarian had soiled himself.
On Friday, Biden was at Pointe du Hoc, and well, his speech — if you heard it — probably sounded a bit familiar.
Joe Biden essentially plagiarized Ronald Reagan’s famous 1984 speech at Pointe du Hoc today in Normandy. Watch these clips side by side. Wow: pic.twitter.com/jeGgTS2Nnm
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) June 7, 2024
Yikes, that's blatant.
And yet, undoubtedly intentional. The day before Biden ripped off Reagan's speech, Politico reported that Biden's team was looking to "take from Reagan's playbook" for a breakthrough moment in Normandy.
"Democratic presidents aren’t prone to adopt Ronald Reagan as a template. But in advance of his trip to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, President Joe Biden and his team are looking closely at how the conservative icon used a similar pilgrimage forty years ago, according to three people familiar with the president’s plans, eager to follow him both oratorically and politically," the outlet wrote.
In June of 1984, Reagan traveled to France’s northern coast to deliver two speeches memorializing the heroic sacrifices of thousands of American soldiers during World War II. One of them, authored by Peggy Noonan and still remembered for immortalizing “the boys of Pointe du Hoc,” captured the nation’s attention, lifted support for Reagan’s approach to foreign policy and featured heavily in the video introducing him at the GOP convention. Ultimately, it helped carry him to a second term. Biden aides are open about their desire for a rerun and inviting comparisons to “The Gipper,” with aides conceding that they have studied the Reagan trip closely and are looking to similarly capture the attention of a distracted, disillusioned public and remind them of how much is still at stake. Not only is Biden expected to echo Reagan in paying homage to these climactic battles for freedom and democracy, he will deliver his remarks from where Reagan stood, on those iconic cliffs where the war turned. (emphasis added)
This was actually funny until you realized that Biden's team must taken Reagan's speech, ran it through AI with the prompt "change this a little bit" and thought that would somehow capture Reagan's magic. Because it doesn't. And worse yet, given Biden's history with plagiarism, it was just a stupid idea.
Related: UK Prime Minister in Hot Water Over His D-Day Gaffe
During his first year in law school, he was accused of plagiarizing a law review article. His 1988 presidential campaign was derailed by multiple accusations of plagiarism, having lifted passages from the speeches of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock.
In the 2020 Democratic primary, his campaign copied Bernie Sanders' platform and other websites. Even his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination in 2020 appeared to have plagiarized passages.
The guy just never learns.
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