At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, President Joe Biden made a notable reference to Russia, quoting a statement by the late former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Biden mentioned that Kissinger, shortly before his passing, remarked on how Europe had not looked at Russia with such concern since the time of Napoleon.
Biden emphasized his efforts in strengthening NATO, claiming that his 190 hours spent with European leaders played a key role in Finland and Sweden joining the alliance.
“Ten days before Henry’s death, Kissinger called and said that not since Napoleon had Europe looked over its shoulder at Russia without fear,” the head of the White House said.
Biden said, “In the face of a century-defining pandemic, historic levels of joblessness, and a long-overdue call for racial justice, we confront clear and present threats to our very democracy. Yet, I believed then, as I do now, that progress is possible, justice is achievable, and our best days are still ahead of us.”
As summer arrives and winter fades, I stand before you on this August night with a grateful heart to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered, and now, it must be preserved.
We are at an inflection point—a rare moment in history where the decisions we make now will determine the fate of our nation and the world for decades to come. This is not an exaggeration; it is a literal truth. We are in a battle for the very soul of America.
I ran for president in 2020 because of what I witnessed in Charlottesville in August 2017: extremists emerging from the shadows, carrying torches, their veins bulging with rage, brandishing Nazi swastikas, and chanting the same anti-Semitic hate that echoed in Germany in the early 1930s.
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Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the Ku Klux Klan, emboldened by a president who they saw as an ally, felt no need to hide their faces. Hate was on the march in America—old ghosts in new disguises, reviving the oldest divisions, stoking the oldest fears, and breathing new life into the forces that have long sought to tear us apart, Biden said.
He assured that if Kamala Harris wins the upcoming November election, she will stand firm against Russian President Vladimir Putin, promising that she “will never bow” to him.