On Thursday, US President Joe Biden will deliver an important speech in Arizona regarding protecting democratic institutions, in a new attack on former President Donald Trump as the competitors intensify their 2024 election battle.

The White House indicated that Biden's speech "will also honor the legacy" of the late Republican US Senator John McCain, who shared the Democratic president's distaste for Trump.

With opinion polls showing close results for them, Biden (80 years old) intensified his attacks on the most likely Republican candidate, Donald Trump, for trying to “destroy” democracy.

Populist business tycoon Trump faces criminal charges for trying to reverse the result of the 2020 election, which his supporters tried to overturn by attacking the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
A White House official said that Biden's speech in Tempe, Arizona, "will focus on the importance of American institutions in preserving our democracy and the need for continued loyalty to the American Constitution."
He added, "The president will honor his friend and war hero, the late Senator John McCain, whose refusal to abuse power and belief in America set a strong example that can be followed."

Invoking the memory of McCain, a hero of the Vietnam War and a respected American political figure, is a clear attempt by Biden to draw comparisons with the far-right Trump.

McCain greatly disliked Trump, withdrew his support for him in the 2016 elections, and said before his death from brain cancer in 2018 that he did not want him to attend his funeral.

The feeling was mutual, with Trump in 2015 mocking his war hero status.
As for Biden, he gave a speech at McCain's funeral, saying that he "loved him" and that their friendship transcended political differences.

This week, Biden and Trump made separate visits to striking auto workers in Michigan, with the former going to the state on Tuesday to provide support for the strike and the latter speaking the next day in front of a spare parts manufacturing plant in the town of Clinton, a little more than 60 kilometers away. Which Biden visited.

Biden then embarked on a series of campaign events that he used to direct his fire at Trump on the issue of democracy.

Biden said in California on Wednesday evening, “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans (the “Make America Great Again” movement launched by Trump) are determined to destroy American democracy because they want to destroy institutional structures.”

The speech that Biden will deliver on Thursday comes the day after Trump was absent from the second debate preceding the Republican Party primary elections.