Inside Biden's fiery speech and his decision to confront Trump's danger head on

In meetings where Biden discussed the speech with his team over the past month and a half, advisers came away with the clear impression it was a deeply personal moment for a president whose tenure has been shadowed by the lies about voter fraud that Trump has peddled about the 2020 presidential election and the enduring grip he continues to hold on the Republican Party.

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Biden came to the sessions — which began in late November — with distinct views on the tone he hoped to adopt during the address, according to officials familiar with the speech’s drafting. Biden, according to one, felt he “absolutely had to speak on this day” and make clear that what had transpired last January 6 “wasn’t normal.”

The speech harkened back to themes from Biden’s campaign, when he repeatedly pledged to “restore the soul of the nation.” It was, he said again and again, the central reason for jumping back into the political arena on a mission to defeat Trump…

The President has been deeply concerned by recent polling, which has found that a strong majority of Republicans and a sizable share of independents have bought into Trump’s mistruths about the election. In some surveys, as many as 7 in 10 Republicans say that fraud helped Biden win — a claim that’s been repeatedly debunked.

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