Jake Sullivan: Biden’s D-Day Address to Focus on Russia

President Joe Biden’s upcoming address in Normandy, France, to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 will focus on the threat of Russia invading Europe, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday.

Sullivan, a key player in the “Russia collusion” hoax, previewed the president’s speech in a press gaggle aboard Air Force One. He said that Biden’s address would focus on drawing lessons from history to apply to threats today.

Past presidential addresses at D-Day commemorations have tended to avoid attacking Russia or the Soviet Union — even at the height of the Cold War — due to the fact that the USSR helped defeat Nazi Germany By the time the Allies landed on the beaches of France in 1944, the Soviets had lost millions of citizens fighting to repel the Nazi invasion.

Here is what President Ronald Reagan said in 1984, in what is considered one of the best orations in U.S. history:

It’s fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: 20 million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.

We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

President Donald Trump delivered an address on the 75th anniversary of D-Day that was considered, even by hostile media, one of the best speeches of his presidency. He did not mention Russia or the Soviet Union at all, but rather focused on the heroism of D-Day and only briefly mentioned the fight against the USSR: “These men ran through the fires of hell moved by a force no weapon could destroy: the fierce patriotism of a free, proud, and sovereign people. …  In the decades that followed, America defeated communism, secured civil rights, revolutionized science, launched a man to the moon, and then kept on pushing to new frontiers. And, today, America is stronger than ever before.”

Biden’s address will focus on Russia at a moment when U.S. weapons could be used, for the first time, by Ukrainian forces to attack targets inside Russian territory — an escalation that could widen the war beyond its current frontier.

In 2021, his first year in the Oval Office, President Biden failed to mention D-Day, noting the Tulsa Race Riots instead.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.