President Joe Biden, a self-professed Catholic, made the sign of the cross while Florida Democratic Party chairperson Nikki Fried decried the state’s six-week abortion limit at an event on Tuesday.
A clip of the Tampa, Florida, event broadcast on Fox News shows the 81-year-old president cross himself, a practice among Catholics meant to symbolically indicate the figure of Christ’s cross, while Fried said: “And then we come back here to the state of Florida, where Ron DeSantis felt like he needed to run for president, and so 15-weeks wasn’t good enough — we had to go to six-weeks.”
The action garnered negative reactions from prominent conservative and faith-based organizations, including Catholic Vote.
“This. Is. VILE! President Biden makes the Sign of the Cross at an abortion rally in Florida! You cannot invoke GOD and promote Death,” the organization posted to X.
“Today, while President Joe Biden was in Florida for his abortion fearmongering tour, he invoked the sign of the cross during a speech calling for abortion on demand. Is abortion now a left-wing sacrament?” leading pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America posted to X.
The president joined Fried for a small event with activists and union officials after making a 15-minute speech at Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus. His speech with Fried was “much less on abortion than he did at the rally,” the Tampa Bay Timesreported on the events.
“We’ve got a lot more work to do. We’ve built the strongest economy in the world. We’ve got to get inflation even further down,” Biden said, while later claiming that “Florida is in play nationally” and that “The momentum is clearly in our favor.”
Biden visited Florida specifically to galvanize voters before a six-week abortion limit takes effect next month. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the state’s 15-week abortion restriction earlier this month, which cleared the way for the six-week restriction to take effect. At the same time, the Florida Supreme Court also allowed a proposed amendment that would enshrine the “right” to abortion in the state constitution to appear on the ballot in November.
After the two state Supreme Court decisions dropped, Democrats descended on the state, with Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez declaring Florida now a “winnable” state. Former President Donald Trump notably led the state by 370,000 votes in 2020.
Besides blaming former President Donald Trump for enabling the Florida law, Biden criticized his opponent for a recent decision from the Arizona Supreme Court upholding an 1864 law that restricts nearly all abortions, and an Alabama Supreme Court decision classifying embryos used in in vitro fertilization (IVF) as unborn babies.
“[Trump] says it’s up to the states, and this is all about state rights. But he is wrong. The Supreme Court was wrong. [Abortion] should be a constitutional right in the federal constitution,” Biden said.
Biden further claimed that Trump would sign a federal abortion ban into law if he is elected, despite the fact that Trump has said he believes the abortion issue should be left to individual states.
During his speech at the community college, Biden also mocked Trump for promoting Bibles.
“[Trump] described the Dobbs decision as a miracle. Maybe it’s coming from that Bible he’s trying to sell,” Biden said “I almost wanted to buy one to see what the hell’s in it.”
“Folks, it was no miracle. It was a political deal to get rid of Roe — a political deal he made with the evangelical base of the Republican party… if they [would] look past his moral and character flaws in exchange for his commitment to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe,” Biden continued.
It should be noted that Trump is not selling Bibles — instead, he teamed up with country music star Lee Greenwood on a patriot-themed edition of the Bible called the “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bible, which comes with copies of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Pledge of Allegiance. The website for the “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bible clarifies that the Bibles have “nothing to do with any political campaign” and that the company uses Trump’s name, likeness, and image under a paid license from CIC Ventures LLC.
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