Delivering remarks at their annual policy retreat on Thursday, President Joe Biden rallied House Democrats around the idea that they will win in November if they paint a clear contrast between their “unity” and the GOP’s “cynical political games.”
“We have to make the contrast, the choice, crystal clear,” Biden told Democrats in the lower chamber in Leesburg, Va. “Time and again Republicans show they are a party of chaos and disunion.”
Democrats are hoping to win back control of the lower chamber this year.
“We’re here to serve the American people,” Biden said. “That’s the job: serve the American people. We have to make that clear. If we do, we win.”
The president praised the caucus for its approach to two votes this week that handed the GOP House leadership surprising blows. Republicans in the lower chamber failed to impeach Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as well as pass an Israel aid bill that would have ignored Biden’s request for funds for Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific and the U.S.-Mexico border.
“This just shows that when we're united, we can beat House Republicans and their cynical political games,” Biden said.
Biden jabbed Congressional Republicans and former President Donald Trump – who the incumbent president looks likely to face in a rematch this November – for killing a bipartisan border policy bill that the GOP had initially demanded in order to get its support for the president’s foreign aid priorities.
“They shout about a problem but then do nothing to solve the problem,” the president said.
Biden claimed Trump called GOP lawmakers telling them not to support the border deal, although he added he couldn’t prove that. Trump was open about his opposition to the agreement. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday denied that the former president had anything to do with his opposition in an interview with NBC.
“When voters have a choice between what we stand for and what Trump and the MAGA Republicans stand for, we win,” Biden said. “Which makes Trump and his MAGA friends losers."
The president went on to encourage Democrats to “finish the job” by “beating Big Pharma again” by lowering drug prices, make housing more affordable, protect social security and Medicare, pass a law combatting voting restrictions and more.
Biden ended by seeking to rally House Democrats around an argument he often makes on the campaign trail: American democracy is on the ballot this November.
“We’ll be able to say something few generations can say: the American democracy is at risk and you saved it,” Biden said loudly to cheers from House Democrats.
The president opened his remarks on Thursday by commenting on a Department of Justice report released shortly before his address that found he "willfully" retained and disclosed highly classified materials when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other sensitive national security matters, but no criminal charges are warranted for him or anyone else.
"I was pleased to see they reached a conclusion I believed and knew all along they would reach – that no charges should be brought in this case," the president said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report