Biden leans into manufacturing in campaign-style Michigan speech
President Joe Biden, who has remained guarded about his 2024 plans, spoke at a new electric vehicle components plant in a Michigan county that voted for Trump.
BAY CITY, Mich. — An exultant Joe Biden sounded every bit like a president hungering for another term, imploring Americans in a speech Tuesday to buy into his vision of a nation making dramatic economic strides against global competition.
“We’re building a better America,” Biden said at a plant that makes components for electric vehicles. “We just have to keep it going! I know we can.”
Biden vowed in his half-hour remarks that the U.S. would expand its manufacturing capacity to levels preventing the sorts of supply-side disruptions that led to shortages of vital products early on during the Covid pandemic. He suggested that China and Europe aren’t necessarily happy about America’s economic ambitions, but he indicated he’s determined to supplant their role as vital links in the worldwide supply chain.
“We’ve proven it’s never, ever been a good bet to bet against America,” Biden said at SK Siltron CSS’ gleaming new plant before an appreciative crowd of union workers, elected officials and political supporters. “I mean it.”
Biden was speaking about the nation, but he might just as well have been talking about himself. Two years ago, anyone betting against Biden’s political prospects would have lost. He upended conventional thinking when he rallied after early defeats in the 2020 Democratic primaries and then went on to win the nomination and oust President Donald Trump. Just this month, Biden’s party defied history in the midterm elections by keeping control of the Senate and staving off heavy losses in the House.
Rating: 5