President Biden will offer remarks from Normandy, France by mark the 80th Anniversary of D-Day at 6:30 a.m. D.C., time.
During the press gaggle on Air-Force One, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan explained:
Just to set the stage for the next few days. As Karine just said, the President is on his way to help commemorate and celebrate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day — of D-Day, the landing at Normandy by the Allies, which paved the way to victory in World War Two.
Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan En Route Paris, France. 06/04/2024.
He’ll have the opportunity on Thursday to meet with veterans who participated in the D-Day landing and also to join fellow leaders in celebrating that anniversary and giving a speech that will talk about, against the backdrop of war in Europe today, the sacrifices that those heroes and those veterans made 80 years ago and how it’s our obligation to continue their mission to fight for freedom.
Then, on Friday, he will return to Normandy to speak at Pointe du Hoc, which is a hundred-foot-tall cliff that Army Rangers scaled under gunfire to take fortified German positions. And he’ll talk about the stakes of that moment, an existential fight between a dictatorship and freedom. He’ll talk about the men who scaled those cliffs and how they put themselves behind — they put the country ahead of themselves. And he’ll talk about the dangers of isolationism and how if we bow to dictators and fail to stand up to them, they keep going and ultimately America and the world pays a greater price.
And over the course of the two days, he’ll really be drawing a through line from World War Two through the Cold War and the stand-up of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known — the NATO Alliance — to today: where we face, once again, war in Europe; where NATO has rallied to defend freedom and sovereignty in Europe; where NATO has, in fact, expanded under President Biden’s leadership; and we’re all working together with a coalition of 50 nations to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s brutal aggression; where today, in 2024, 80 years later, we see dictators once again attempting to challenge the order, attempting to march in Europe, and that freedom-loving nations need to rally to stand against that as we have.
While he’s in Normandy, he’ll have the opportunity to sit down with President Zelenskyy and have an engagement with him to talk about the state of play in Ukraine and how we can continue and deepen our support for Ukraine.
He will also have an opportunity several days later to see President Zelenskyy again at the G7 in Italy.
And then, as you saw, he has asked Vice President Harris to represent the United States at the peace summit in Switzerland, and I will accompany the Vice President on that trip.
So, in the course of a little more than a week, the President will have two substantive engagements with President Zelenskyy. And the Vice President will be there to stand behind Ukraine’s vision of peace, which is rooted in the U.N. Charter and in the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. And it’s a signal of the depth of our commitment to Ukraine at this vital moment. And this opportunity for the President and Zelenskyy to sit down twice will really allow them to go deep on every aspect and every issue in the war.
He will also have the chance to see and engage with a number of other of our Allied leaders who will be there.
And then, of course, the trip will culminate with a state visit to France. Of course, we’ll be in France all these days, but then it converts — it elevates into a state visit in Paris, where he’ll have the opportunity for an extended discussion with President Macron on the entire breadth of our relationship; on the war in Ukraine; on the situation in the Middle East; on our expanding cooperation in the Indo-Pacific; and on everything from the climate crisis to artificial intelligence to emerging technology to investments in resilient, secure supply chains and the clean energy transition — just across the board.
France is one of our oldest — is our oldest and one of our deepest allies. And this will be an important moment to affirm that alliance and also look to the future and what we have to accomplish together, both in the immediate term and in the longer term.
So, it’s going to be action-packed, I think, extremely moving, and extremely important three days in France with business, with speeches, and with an opportunity for him to say thank you directly to the veterans who saved democracy, saved the free world, and set the stage for the decades of peace and prosperity that followed.
Currently, I have found one live feed for his remarks; I will not be able to add more feeds as the remarks happen at 3:30 a.m. my time. I will try and add feeds for the later events that after his early remarks.
President Biden Commemorates 80th Anniversary of D-Day in France:
I did find an AP News feed that doesn’t say if President Biden’s remarks are included; I’m not even positive it will be live at 6:30 a.m. D.C.,time.
