President Biden on Saturday told U.S. Military Academy graduates to remain true to their values as they face threats and turmoil around the world.
“Hold on to the values you learned here at West Point,” Biden told the graduates.
He said they will have to fulfill the oath they took on their first day at West Point. An oath taken “not to a political party, not to a president, but to the Constitution of the United States of America, against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Biden said the class motto is appropriate for the types of challenges they will face as new members of the Army, including supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, facilitating humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza and defending Israel from Iran. The Associated Press reported.
“There has never been a time in history when we have asked our military to do so many different things in so many different places around the world, all at the same time,” he said.
Many of Biden’s sentiments were met with applause from the crowd, a contrast to when former President Trump gave the West Point commencement address in 2020 and was met with criticism.
Trump delivered his speech weeks after joining Mark Esper, the former secretary of defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley at a photo op at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church.
Authorities forcibly removed George Floyd protesters so they could walk to the church. The 2020 graduates wrote a letter urging them to fulfill their oaths.
Similar to Biden’s remarks on Saturday, the letter said: “We do not promise service to any monarch; no government; no political party; no tyrant.
“Your oath is to a set of principles and an ideal expressed in the Constitution and its amendments,” the letter said.
Biden did not mention Trump during his speech, but emphasized the importance of democracy as he continued his warnings about the upcoming election.
“Nothing is guaranteed about our democracy in America,” he said. “Each generation has the obligation to defend it, to protect it, to preserve it, to choose it. Now it is your turn.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
