White House says theme of president’s speech will be democracy as he speaks from Pointe du Hoc

We’re a few minutes away from Joe Biden delivering a speech on the Normandy coastline, where the White House says the theme will be democracy – meaning the president may take more shots, veiled or unveiled, at Donald Trump and his authoritarian plans.

Biden will speak from Pointe du Hoc, a strategic promontory that was a key objective for US forces during the D-day invasion, and gained renewed attention four decades later when Ronald Reagan delivered a notable address from the point. Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh:

On Friday, Biden is due to speak at Pointe du Hoc, where 80 years ago 225 US Rangers scaled 35-metre sheer cliffs using rope ladders shot over the top to capture a strategically situated artillery bunker. It was perhaps the most dangerous single mission on D-day, and casualties were severe. Only 90 were still able to fight when a count was taken a couple of days later.

There is almost certainly another reason for the location of Biden’s address, given the US president has an election to fight. Forty years ago a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, spoke on the cliffs at the same battle site, and in front of an audience of military veterans he justified the struggle of the day in terms not obviously recognisable in Donald Trump’s Republican worldview.

Is he describing himself? Weak and pathetic? Come on, look, everybody knows what’s happened. We had a deal, it was much broader than this, much better, much more accepted, across the board, and he got on the phone and told the Republicans, don’t support it. It will hurt me, it will help Biden.