Speaking Friday near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, a pivotal site in America’s Revolutionary War, President Biden framed the stakes of the 2024 election. Marking the third anniversary of Jan. 6, Biden condemned political violence and Donald Trump. White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López reports.

Speaking today near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, a pivotal site in America's Revolutionary War, President Biden framed the stakes of the 2024 election.

Joe Biden , President of the United States: Whether democracy is still America's sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time. And it's what the 2024 election is all about.

Amna Nawaz:

Marking the three-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection in his first campaign speech of the year, Biden condemned political violence.

Joe Biden :

I will say what Donald Trump won't. Political violence is never, ever acceptable in the United States' political system, never, never, never.

(Applause)

Joe Biden :

It has no place in the democracy, none.

Amna Nawaz:

White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez has been covering all of this closely, joins me now.

Laura, it's good to see you.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Good to be here.

Amna Nawaz:

So, President Biden said — among many other things, he said, Trump is willing to sacrifice democracy.

Why is the president making this the central theme of his reelection campaign now?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Because he really believes that this is the most important issue facing the country right now, that it's an existential threat, and that President Biden decided to run in 2020 because of the neo-Nazis that he saw marching on Charlottesville.

And he and his campaign see a through line from that to now. And they picked Valley Forge, a senior Biden adviser told me, because it was the place that George Washington united the Continental Army, emerged stronger. They also wanted to draw a contrast between George Washington and Donald Trump, essentially showing that George Washington was someone who gave up power twice, first the Continental Army, which he led, and then also gave up the presidency after two terms.

Amna Nawaz:

Now, your sources told you he was also meeting with historians before this speech. We'd love to know more of what they said.

And, also, does the reelection campaign think that this is a message that's going to resonate with voters?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

That's right.

Amna, I know that I spoke to multiple historians who met with President Biden this week. And these are historians that have met with presidents in the past. And they say that their meetings with Biden are much more urgent, that they're very serious, given the moment that they see the country facing. The president asks a lot of questions.

He wants to understand potential historical parallels throughout U.S. history. I spoke to Princeton's Eddie Glaude Jr., who said that he sees this moment as a second lost cause, that lost cause being the myth that was perpetuated after the Civil War that romanticized the South, that tried to revise the history of slavery, and drew that parallel to the revisions of January 6.

President Biden's campaign, a senior adviser told me, believes that reminding voters about January 6 could be motivating, particularly for Democrats and independents. And they also said that they have been hearing from more and more voters more voters as they have started campaigning about fears of political violence. So they see this as a very salient issue.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, tomorrow does mark three years since that attack on the Capitol on January 6.

You have been talking to experts who monitor political violence and monitor extremist groups. What are they saying about this moment in time and what is ahead in 2024?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

They're very concerned about the increased risk of violence. And a lot of them cited some recent polling that we have seen from The Washington Post — or sorry — excuse me.

They cited polling from the Public Religion Research Institute, which, when people were asked if they agreed with the statement that true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country, 23 percent of all Americans agreed; 33 percent of Republicans agreed, compared to just 13 percent of Democrats.

So we see that — and that's an increase, Amna, from past years, where more and more Americans believe that violence may be justified. And I spoke with Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment, who monitors political violence and threats. And she said that she does not believe that there will be violence on the scale of January 6, but that the country is at risk of heightened violence.

Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: But what we are likely to see is very directed violence at the people involved in the court cases against Trump, the prosecutors, the judges, the juries.

We're likely to see broad violence against minorities and immigrants that are being directed by really ugly campaign rhetoric. We're likely to see a lot of violence in schools, because kids tend to take on the polarization of their parents, but they're much more impulsive and more willing to act.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

The other type of violence she told me that she believes could be seen is something known as stochastic terrorism, Amna.

And what that is that, when an individual hears former President Donald Trump attack migrants, attack Colorado judges, attack anyone that he perceives as a political enemy and essentially places a target on their back, that then that individual may then go out and act on it, and that that is something that they are seeing more and more frequently.

And also they said that it doesn't mean that person is a lone wolf, that that's a bit of a myth, that these individuals are part of a larger ecosystem where they're watching disinformation across online channels and are influenced by extremist groups in a way that wasn't really possible before we had social media in the way that we do.

Amna Nawaz:

I mean, the question it begs is, is, there anything that can be done, more that can be done to stop that kind of political violence before we get to that point?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld said that there are some small steps that can be taken. She thinks overall that the system is really sound, that our democratic election system is solid, but small steps like removing addresses and names of election workers that sometimes are public on Web sites for people to see that then leads to them being doxxed and to them being attacked, safety trainings, educating the public more on how our elections work.

But she did say, Dr. Kleinfeld said that there is one thing that would be more effective than anything else.

Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld:

Americans have done a lot to combat violence, but it has not been enough. The biggest actor that needs to reduce violence is the political leaders that — whose side is fomenting violence.

Right now, that's Republicans. It might not always be, but what we need is for Republican politicians to speak out against violence from their side.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

So, right there, Dr. Kleinfeld said that if Republican officials were to speak out more, then it would have the greatest effect.

And she's not just saying that because she believes that it would. It's because studies have shown, repeated studies have shown that, if a person of a specific political ideology hears from a leader or an officeholder that has the same political affiliation that they do, then they are much more likely to be impacted.

It would mean that they are less likely to try to seek out and commit acts of violence. And so she has hope that maybe more Republicans, like we have seen from Senator Mitt Romney, like we have seen from Congresswoman Liz Cheney, would go — come out and forcefully condemn violence.

But, at this stage, Amna, we haven't seen much of that.

Amna Nawaz:

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you, as always, for your great reporting.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Thank you.