President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, both de facto confirmed as presidential candidates for their respective parties in the upcoming November U.S. presidential election, visited Georgia, a crucial battleground state, on Saturday to hold campaign events. While in Atlanta, the state capital, President Biden highlighted the ‘bromance’ between former President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, asserting that Trump poses a threat to democracy.
On the same day, former President Trump visited Rome, a small city approximately 113 kilometers from Atlanta, and criticized President Biden's immigration policy, characterizing it as overly lenient. Rome happens to be the constituency of hard-line Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, often dubbed as the 'female Trump.' Additionally, it's near the hometown of Laken Riley, a female college student recently murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
Former President Trump was notably encouraged by the recent visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, often likened to the 'Trump of Eastern Europe,' to the U.S. on Thursday and Friday. He noted that Orban chose to exclusively meet with him during his visit, without holding talks with President Biden.
At a rally in Atlanta on Saturday, President Biden criticized former President Trump for flattering dictators and authoritarian leaders worldwide. He emphasized Trump's tendencies, saying that he praised North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's 'beautiful letter,' referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as 'king,' and allegedly gave Russian President Vladimir Putin free rein with America's allies. President Biden reiterated these concerns in an interview with MSNBC the same day, highlighting Trump's statements of respect towards Kim Jong Un and his praise for Putin.
President Biden's repeated criticism of former President Trump's cozy ties with strong men (authoritarian leaders) worldwide is perceived as an attempt to frame the upcoming presidential election as a battle between 'democracy versus dictatorship.' In his State of the Union address on Thursday, President Biden rebuked former President Trump for allegedly capitulating to Putin. Additionally, at a campaign rally in his hometown of Pennsylvania on Friday, he condemned the meeting between former President Trump and Prime Minister Orban, suggesting that Trump was seeking out dictators.
Former President Trump asserted that Putin's daily nuclear threats stemmed from his belief that the current U.S. president is incompetent, and if there were a capable president like himself, the U.S. would be secure.
The decision for both current and former presidents to hold campaign events in Georgia on the same day is seen as a strategic move due to the state's considerable importance in both the previous and upcoming presidential elections. In the last election, President Biden narrowly secured victory over former President Trump by a margin of 0.23 percentage points.
Accordingly, former President Trump faced federal criminal indictments last year for allegedly pressuring the then Secretary of State to overturn the results of the presidential election. On Saturday, he criticized the Biden administration's immigration policy, asserting that Riley's tragic murder occurred due to Biden's deliberate release of illegal immigrants.
President Biden deliberately selected a campaign venue with significant connections to former President Trump. The chosen location, Pullman Yards, a prominent concert hall in Atlanta, holds proximity to the Fulton County Jail. It's noteworthy that former President Trump, indicted for alleged involvement in overturning the 2020 presidential election, made a personal appearance at the jail in August of last year, where he was photographed for identification purposes.
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