Biden was making his first speech as president at the annual white-tie gala for the US media and political elite, an event that Republican former president Trump addressed in 2018.

The US President is trailing in several polls and faces voters concerns about his age, which he has tried to address by highlighting 77-year-old Trump’s recent verbal slip-ups, AFP reported. 

He also took a swipe at Republicans in Congress who have launched an impeachment inquiry into his son’s business dealings, saying they would “rather fail at impeachment than succeed at anything else.”

Here are Biden’s top 10 quotes at the Washington press dinner, 

1) “Two candidates had clinched their party’s nomination for president. But one was too old, too mentally unfit for the job. The other’s me.”

2) “Don’t tell him, he thinks he’s running against Barack Obama, that’s what he said. We live in an unprecedented moment in democracy.”

3) “An unprecedented moment in history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. Putin’s on the march in Europe. My predecessor bows down to him and says to him, ‘do whatever the hell you want.’”

4) “We will not bow down. They will not bow down, and I will not bow down,” he said after bringing his daughter Ashley as quoted by AP. 

5) “Trump’s false claims to have won the 2020 election, and the January 6 2021 Capitol assault by pro-Trump rioters, showed there was “poison coursing through the veins of our democracy.”

6) “You are not the enemy of the people. You are a pillar of any free society,” Biden then backed journalists whom Trump has repeatedly attacked. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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Published: 17 Mar 2024, 01:41 PM IST