Former President Biden during a speech Thursday night to mark Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the emancipation of slaves in the U.S. in the 1860s, blasted “efforts to erase history.”
“I took the view as president, we need to be honest about our history — especially in the face of ongoing efforts to erase our history,” Biden said at a historically Black church in Galveston, Texas, founded by slaves in 1848.
Biden also took a swipe at President Trump’s decision to restore the names of military installations that honored Confederate generals.
“I played a role in changing names of all those military camps with names tied to slavery,” Biden said. “What are they doing now? Reinstating those names.”
“Folks, darkness can hide much but can erase nothing, and only with truth can come justice and healing,” he added.
Congress passed bipartisan legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, and Biden signed it into law.
“Democrats and Republicans came together in overwhelming numbers memorialize this profound moment in American history,” Biden recalled late Thursday. “The events of Juneteenth are of monumental importance to the American story.”
Trump, who vowed on the campaign trail in 2020 to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday, didn’t formally recognize the holiday on Thursday, as he had during his first term. He posted on social media that there are “too many non-working holidays.”
“Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked during Thursday’s press briefing whether Trump planned to sign a Juneteenth proclamation.
“I’m not tracking his signature on a proclamation today,” she said. “We are working 24/7 right now.”
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