Montco leaders react to President Biden’s visit to Montgomery County Community College

The significance of President Joe Biden’s visit to Montgomery County was not lost on elected officials in the area.

Democrats came out in droves to listen to an impassioned speech from the president on Friday afternoon as he kicked off the first campaign event of 2024 in the Philadelphia suburbs. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will be seeking reelection against a Republican challenger, a showdown that may include former President Donald Trump.

"I think it’s very important. Montgomery County is the key to the Keystone State,” said Montgomery County Sheriff Sean Kilkenny.

"I think it’s telling, because this is his first trip of the year, in a very important year, and he recognizes that the voters here really determine the direction of the country,” said Montgomery County Commissioners’ Vice Chairman Neil Makhija.

Around 400 people were present at the event that took place inside the health sciences center theater of Montgomery County Community College’s Blue Bell campus. Attendance included local, state and federal dignitaries.

"It’s always exciting when the president comes to your home turf,” said Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Jamila Winder, adding that "he could have been anywhere in the country, anywhere in Pennsylvania, anywhere in southeastern Pennsylvania, but he chose to be here. So it’s exciting.”

While local and county leaders underscored the important role Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia suburbs play in presidential elections, they emphasized the state’s third most populous county.

"I think it shows that … there’s no road to the White House without high numbers in Montgomery County, and Montgomery County’s been able to deliver the past few election cycles,” said Norristown Municipal Council President Thomas Lepera.

"It’s a big deal because Biden will be reliant on Pennsylvania, and what we do in Montgomery County — in terms of voter turnout — … on making sure that Montgomery County shows up strong for him,” Winder said, observing that the location of Friday’s event was a strategic move on the part of the Biden campaign.

Winder noted that "he clearly knows, and his team knows, that Montgomery County is an important place on the map to help him win his bid for a second term as president.”

Democracy Key Theme of Biden’s speech

Biden began the day visiting Valley Forge before traveling about 16 miles to the community college in Blue Bell. He opened his speech with remarks about the Revolutionary War-era battleground that would become so significant to Montgomery County.

But his remarks focused on democracy, just one day before the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Members of Congress were participating in the certification of the 2020 presidential election. The votes were counted for Biden and Trump, and days after Election Day, the race was called that Biden had won with 306 Electoral College votes.

Opposition from Trump and his supporters led to many traveling to protest the election certification on Jan. 6, 2021. The day would later devolve into chaos as rioters stormed the capitol; the activity was broadcast on numerous news outlets.

"The entire nation watched in horror. The whole world watched in disbelief,” Biden said on Friday.

Biden took audience members back to that day, recalling the horrors that took place that resulted in death, injury and eventual arrest. He said that more than 1,200 people were charged, 900 were convicted or pleaded guilty, receiving prison sentencing totaling 840 years.

Biden blasted former President Donald Trump for his conduct and character on that fateful day as well as the days that followed.

But his words hit close to home for U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th Dist. She represents constituents in Berks and Montgomery counties and was in the congressional chambers on Jan. 6, 2021.

"I was there when that strange set of instructions came, which was (to) sit down, prepare to lie down, get the gas mask out from under your seat, put them on and wait for us to get you out of here,” Dean said. "We had no idea, until I heard the banging on those doors, and the breaking of the glass of the chamber, what in God’s name was going on. We were traumatized. We were terrified.”

"I was terrified for myself.” she continued. "I scared my children by calling them and said here’s where I am, but I was much more terrified for our country. Would we have a capitol? Would we have a democracy?”

Later serving as an impeachment manager, Dean blasted her Republican colleagues, and maintained her position to this day, who she said "will not admit that brutal honesty, what we were up against, that a single man was willing to send a riotous mob using his flags — I’ll never forget seeing Trump flags and the American flag and a Confederate flag — beating police officers, wanting to kill any one of us they got their hands on.”

Returning to her district to witness the presidential speech, Dean did express some reservations looking to the upcoming political season.

"I have to admit I’m anxious for this election cycle, I’m anxious for democracy and I’m a little angry that three years later we have Republican leaders, and the possible nominee of the Republican party, continuing to lie, stoke fear, stoke violence, all to tear down our democracy, to keep themselves in power,” she said.

Biden stressed that "preserving and strengthening our American democracy” is key, seeking to calm fears and assure voters that he is the right person for the job.

"America, as we begin this election year we must be clear — democracy is on the ballot,” he said.

The issue is paramount for Makhija, a newly elected Montgomery County commissioner and chairman of the county election board. Makhija is also an attorney who teaches election law.

"I think it’s really important that we understand that what happened in 2020 was unprecedented, in terms of the attempt to overturn the results of an election, and the threat to the peaceful transfer of power,” Makhija said. "And perhaps most importantly, that we in Montgomery County, and in Pennsylvania, have a critical role that everyone recognizes in terms of our place in deciding the future of the country, and for that reason, there will be a lot of pressure on us to ensure that we run an effective free and fair election process.”

Keeping People Interested in Election is Crucial

Dean said she was impressed by the president’s remarks as she reflected on the day’s events.

"I thought it was masterful,” she said. "It was rooted in our history. It was inspirational, but it was extremely honest, and that is what America needs to hear.

"The brutal truth about what happened to this country over the course of the previous administration, and of course on Jan. 6. He was brutally honest in saying to the American people – this is what is at stake.”

After Biden departed the suburban community college campus, it appeared that Democratic leaders had a job to do with months to go until November.

Lepera stressed Biden’s need to increase voter engagement locally, "to let them know what’s at stake in this election, and so that democracy survives … keeping people interested in the upcoming election is crucial.”

"We are a nucleus, and I think that’s a relatively small crowd, and it’s for us to radiate that message out, the words of our president out, and I hope he will make that speech from now until Nov. 5 because everything is at stake, and we have to be looking at this in an absolutely unvarnished way,” Dean said.

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