Taking barbs at the border and the economy, US President Joe Biden and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump campaigned on Saturday in Georgia, a crucial battleground state. This effectively served as the first face-off of the general election of 2024. For the first time this year, both candidates were in the same battleground state at the same moment on Saturday.
They had been accusing each other for weeks of being a danger to democracy. During a campaign event in Rome, Georgia, Trump made reference to the Democratic Party’s “weaponization” of government, citing many court cases pertaining to his handling of confidential documents and attempts to rig the 2020 election.
In recent days, Biden accused Trump of “sucking up to dictators and authoritarian thugs all over the world” for hosting Hungary’s right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban at his club in Florida. “I believe him when he says he wants to be a dictator,” Biden said.
Georgia, which went to Biden in the 2020 election and was crucial to Trump’s fabrications that he was the victim of massive electoral fraud, may be the most fiercely fought state in the general election on November 5. Due to his efforts to tamper with the vote count there, he is facing criminal charges in the state.
Tuesday’s nominating elections in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington state are anticipated to determine Trump’s party’s nominee.
In his very critical State of the Union address on Thursday, Biden accused Trump of undermining bipartisan immigration reform, endangering democracy, and caving in to Russia. But the President is still facing criticism from Democrats for his unwavering backing of Israel in its conflict with Hamas in Gaza; this unhappiness may show up in Tuesday’s Georgia vote.