President Joe Biden attended a private, intimate DNC fundraiser event recently, where he met with a small gathering of only around 40 people at the home of Henry Laufer and Marsha Laufer in New York City. According to reporting on the recent event, the president utilized his speech before the small group to tell one of the anecdotes that have become pretty commonplace for him in his post-Capitol insurrection presidency.
However, Mediaite reported that President Biden added an extra layer of urgency and seriousness to his address when he told the small audience of supporters and notable Democratic figures of the fear and alarm experienced by his fellow G7 world leaders in the wake of the Trump-driven January 6th Capitol attack that left their faith in the United States shaken to the core, with many left asking the president, “Are we going to be okay?”
According to reporting, President Biden said in his speech:
And so I went to the first G7 meeting in England, and I sat down with the leading heads of state and of the seven most prosperous countries in the world. And I said, ‘America is back.’ And my word — the comment from one of them and then echoed by three others was, ‘For how long?’ ‘For how long?’
And then one of them said — I think it was Macron who said to me, ‘Imagine if we left this meeting, turned on the television…’ — I think it was Macron. Don’t quote me on that. I’m not positive if it was. (Laughter.) And turned — one of them said, ‘…turned on the television and saw that there are a crowd of close to 1,000 people running down the halls of the Parliament and breaking down the doors of the — of the House of Commons. People being killed and end up dying to try to overthrow the outcome of an election. What would you think in America?’
All kidding aside, think about it. What would you all think if they did same thing in the Bundestag? I’m serious. We’d wonder whether or not it was still a relevant country, whether it was still a democracy.
And then, on top of that, if you had defended — defended these people as patriots for doing that, what would you think?
So, my point is that we have an obligation. Because I’ve always known that the United States, as Madeleine Albright has said it, of the last — at least the last 100 years, 70 years for certain — is the essential country. And I’ve known that because that’s been my —
But now I realize when I walk in a room, every other world leader looks at me like, ‘Are we going to be okay?’ Not because of me. But I’m the President of the United States of America. They’re looking for America to lead. And we have all the tools to do it. We have all the tools. I’ve never been more optimistic about the prospects for the United States in the world than I am today.”
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The president was reportedly in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
