Recently, President Joe Biden delivered a speech in France to mark 80 years since the world-altering D-Day invasion. Strikingly, elements of his address bore a distinct likeness to a speech previously delivered by former President Ronald Reagan. The likenesses were so strong, it raised eyebrows and sparked conversation about the potential of content duplication from Reagan’s much-lauded address.
The start of Biden’s address harkened back to a similar commencement by President Reagan. Where Reagan set the scene saying, ‘At dawn on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944’, Biden paralleled with an uncannily similar introduction. His recounting of the arrival of two hundred and twenty-five American Rangers echoed Reagan’s vivid description of the same historical moment.
Both speeches memorialized the audacious courage of the Rangers. Biden laid out their heroic climb: ‘They launched their ladders, their ropes and grappling hooks, and they began to climb’, eerily reminiscent of Reagan’s oration, ‘They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up.’ The parallels, far from random or coincidental, nudged the similarity towards plagiarism.
Biden’s painting of the Rangers’ valorous response when faced with Nazi resistance aligned almost identically with Reagan’s. According to Biden, ‘When the Nazis cut their ladders, the Rangers used the ropes, and the Nazis cut the ropes. The Rangers used their hands.’ Reagan’s words had previously encapsulated this same spirit: ‘When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again.’
In Biden’s recounting, ‘And inch by inch, foot by foot, yard by yard, the Rangers clawed, literally clawed their way up this mighty precipice until at last they reached the top.’ This, too, mirrors Reagan’s earlier depiction: ‘Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top.’ Was this simply a common appreciation of the details of the historic event, or indeed a rehashing of Reagan’s words?
Biden’s supposed imitation continued as he vividly detailed the aftermath of the Rangers’ success: ‘They breached Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, and they turned, in that one effort, the tide of the war that began to save the world.’ Yet, decades earlier, Reagan heralded: ‘And in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe.’
Interestingly, Politico had foreshadowed the thematic affiliation in an article titled ‘Biden Seeks His Gipper Moment’. The publication noted that Biden’s aides had closely studied Reagan’s trip as they aimed to capture the public’s attention amid a backdrop of distraction and disillusionment.
Critics of the Biden administration didn’t miss the chance to point out the overlapping language and tonality in the speeches of the two Presidents. Prominent conservative commentator Clay Travis took to social media, criticizing Biden for seeming to recycle Reagan’s oration. Travis also drew attention to Biden’s prior instances of plagiarism, making his case robust.
Expressions of cynicism and skepticism were abundant as more people chimed in on the controversy. An online user pointed out that ‘Biden’s cryptomnesia’ is not an isolated event, with a facetious nod to the President’s history of alleged plagiarism that even led to a previously aborted Presidential campaign.
One commentator quipped, ‘He lies, he copies other people’s work as his own, he is nothing but a fake, a phony, and a career grifter.’ Their sentiment echoed the strong disgruntlement among those who feel the President lacks originality and intellectual depth.
Another user, expressing disdain, went as far as calling it a ‘compliment to Ronald Reagan and his speechwriter’ given the implied admittance of their superior writing ability by choosing to echo Reagan’s speech instead of creating an original one. The underlying implication questioned the competence of Biden’s administration and their hiring practices.
Further criticism arrived from someone who viewed the resemble as an internal political move. They pin-pointed that Biden’s speech was unlikely to be his own creation, interpreting this as evidence of internal sabotage within the President’s administration. They pointed out the highly improbable likelihood that Reagan’s D-Day speech was randomly inserted into Biden’s speech draft.
In the end, a critic summarized the conundrum with a poignant reference to Reagan’s well-known phrase: ‘There you go again.’ They chastised Biden for ‘planarizing’ Reagan’s speech, calling out the repetitiveness of Biden’s past actions and linking it to a plagiarism controversy that dogged his earlier political career.
The narrative of President Biden’s France address, supposedly echoing President Reagan’s iconic speech, paints a perplexing portrait. Whether it’s a deliberate intent to align with Reagan’s rhetoric, an accidental overlap of historical recitation, or a ploy by internal forces – the mirrors held up to both speeches have certainly added fuel to an ongoing controversy. Ultimately, it’s up to the audience to decide where the boundary between plagiarism and homage lies.
