Joe Biden has never been particularly good at giving speeches, but his D-Day speech, at least the text of it, was an exception. Here is a cleaned-up version of his speech, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings:
At last, the hour had come. Dawn, 6th of June, 1944. The wind was pounding, as it is today and always has against these cliffs. 225 American Rangers arrived by ship, jumped into the waves, and stormed the beach. They could see—all they could see was the outline of the shore and the enormity of these cliffs. . . . That’s what we’re standing on top of. All they could hear was the crack of bullets hitting ships, sand, rocks—hitting everything. All they knew was time was of the essence.
They ran toward the cliffs, and mines planted by Field Marshal Rommel exploded around them. But still, they kept coming. Gunfire rained above them. But still, they kept coming. Nazi grenades thrown from above exploded against the cliffs, but still they kept coming.
Within minutes, they reached the base of this cliff. They launched their ladders, their ropes, and grappling hooks, and they began to climb. When the Nazis cut their ladders, the Rangers used their ropes. When the Nazis cut their ropes, the Rangers used their hands. And inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, the Rangers clawed—literally clawed their way up this mighty precipice until at last they reached the top. They breached Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. And they turned, in that one effort, the tide of war that began to save the world.
It is a lovely speech, nearly as good as Ronald Reagan’s speech on the 40th anniversary of D-Day:
At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers—on the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe.
Now it makes sense why Biden finally delivered a good speech! Here’s a short video for you to watch to see the plagiarism for yourself:
Defending Biden, his Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden didn’t plagiarize Reagan. She said, “he copied.” This is not the first time that Biden has “copied” someone. It’s not even the second time. Or the third time. It’s at least the sixth time we know of it publicly.
There is a joke that Biden has been running for president since 1987. The first time when he ran, he did poorly, but he ended his campaign after a plagiarism scandal before the primaries had begun.
During an August 1987 Iowa primary debate, Biden said:
I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Those same people who read poetry and wrote poetry and taught me how to sing verse? Is it because they didn’t work hard? My ancestors, who worked in the coal mines of Northeast Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours?
A few months earlier in May, the U.K. Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock had given a campaign speech while running against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher:
Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is my wife, Glenys, the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were ‘thick’? Did they lack talent – those people who could sing, and play, and recite and write poetry; those people who could make wonderful, beautiful things with their hands; those people who could dream dreams, see visions; those people who had such a sense of perception as to know in times so brutal, so oppressive, that they could win their way out of that by coming together? Were those people not university material? Couldn’t they have knocked off all their A-levels in an afternoon? But why didn’t they get it? Was it because they were weak? Those people who could work eight hours underground and then come up and play football?
It was a particularly careless case of plagiarism since Biden would later admit that he also never had family who worked in coal mines. Oh well!
Weeks later, an old Biden controversy came to the surface. It turned out that in law school, Biden failed a course and had to retake it for plagiarism. The future president had copied 5 pages of a law review article without even using quotation marks, let alone attribution. The entire paper was 15 pages. He literally copied a third of it. Later on, Biden defended himself by asking, “If I had intended to cheat, would I have been so stupid?” Yes!
Biden also plagiarized Robert F. Kennedy. Here’s Biden in 1987:
The standard has been wealth, economic success, and personal gain. But the standard is not a measure of how we can evaluate the condition of our society. It cannot measure the health of our children. The quality of our education. The joy of their play. It doesn’t measure the beauty of our poetry. The strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate, the integrity of our public officials. It counts neither our wit nor our wisdom, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. That bottom line can tell us everything about our lives, except that what makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America, except that which makes us proud to be Americans.
Here’s Kennedy in 1968:
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
Biden also plagiarized John F. Kennedy in 1987. Here’s Biden:
Each generation of Americans has been summoned to a test of devotion to democracy.
Here’s JFK’s inaugural address:
Since the country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty.
Biden’s vision for America in 1987:
A nation noble enough to treat those at the dawn of life with love, those at the dusk of life with care and those who live in the shadow of life with compassion.
Hubert Humphrey’s vision in 1976:
The ultimate moral test of any government is the manner in which it treats three groups of its citizens: first, those who are in the dawn of life, our children; second, those who are in the shadows of life, our sick, our needy, our handicapped, and those, third, in the twilight of life, our elderly.
President Biden should be getting his 10-week termination notice in November and be without a job in January. The good news is that his plagiarism record qualifies him to become the president of Harvard.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Chuck Warren only and not his co-host Sam Stone or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff
