Joe Biden made the Sign of the Cross in response to pro-abortion comments made by Democrat Nikki Fried, who was standing next to the president.
The gesture came while the president was listening to Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried slam her state’s pro-life law.
“And then we come back here to [the] state of Florida,” Fried said, as Biden stood next to her. Behind the two Democrats was a backdrop of Biden/Harris 2024 campaign signs.
“Where … 15 weeks wasn’t good enough so we had to go to six weeks,” Fried said, referring to the gestational limit up until abortion is allowed under state law.
As soon as Fried said “wasn’t good enough,” Biden began to make a slow sign of the cross. The president is well-known to be a self-professed Catholic. His gesture occurred moments before he delivered a speech in Florida in favor of legal abortion.
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“This. Is. VILE!” CatholicVote wrote on X. “You cannot be Catholic and support abortion! You cannot invoke GOD and promote Death!”
“Biden’s decision to make the Sign of the Cross in support of abortion extremism is a despicable charade that attempts to co-opt a sacred practice in support of his new abortion religion,” said CatholicVote President Brian Burch.
“His gesture openly mocks the Christian belief in the sanctity of life,” Burch added. “There is no divine support for destroying the lives of innocent children, and he should know better.”
“Biden’s gesture suggests he is either terribly naive, or senile, or callously indifferent to the foundational beliefs of millions of Christians in America,” he concluded.
Fried heavily emphasized her pro-abortion views during her failed bid for the Florida governorship two years ago. The lawyer and marijuana lobbyist lost the Democratic primary in a landslide to former Gov. Charlie Crist.
Crist went on to lose the general election to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, also in a landslide.
Biden’s pro-abortion event was held just over six months before the state’s voters will decide the fate of a proposed constitutional amendment.
“In America today in 2024 women have fewer rights than their mothers and their grandmothers had because of Donald Trump,” Biden claimed during the speech.
He further alleged that because of Trump “millions of women in Florida now face … pain and cruelty.”
“It’s not inevitable,” the president continued. “We can stop it when you vote.”
Florida is set to concurrently vote on both the presidential election and the “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion” (Amendment 4) on November 5.
If 60% of Sunshine State voters approve the amendment, a “right” to abortion before so-called “fetal viability” (usually defined at around 24 weeks gestation) will be added to the Florida Constitution.
Also during his speech, Biden called Florida’s pro-life law set to take effect next week “one of the nation’s most extreme anti-abortion laws.”
The legislation, signed by DeSantis almost exactly one year ago, will protect most unborn children after six weeks of pregnancy. The Florida Supreme Court allowed the law to take effect, the same day it allowed Amendment 4 on the November ballot.
Biden framed the law as “criminalizing reproductive healthcare before women even know they’re pregnant.”
“This is bizarre,” the Democrat went on. “You can put a doctor in prison if he takes care of a patient.”
“For 50 years, the Court ruled there was a fundamental constitutional right to privacy,” Biden said, referring to the time when Roe v. Wade was the law of land.
“But two years ago, that was taken away,” he continued, referring to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“Let’s be real clear,” he added. “There’s one person responsible for this nightmare. And he’s acknowledged it and he brags about it. Donald Trump.”
“In fact Trump’s bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade which meant there’s no federal right, no decision could be made, all those decisions made are [at] the state level,” Biden continued.
“Trump goes on in saying that those state laws are working, his words, ‘Brilliantly,’” he added.
He went on to discuss the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the state’s 1864 law protecting almost all unborn children earlier this month: “Today, MAGA Republicans refuse to repeal that ban in Arizona. Trump is literally taking us back 160 years.”
The day after the Arizona ruling, Trump told reporters that he opposed it and will not sign a national pro-life law if one reaches his desk.
Despite this, Biden continued to tie his opponent to the law: “He says it’s up to the states and this is all about state’s rights.”
“But he’s wrong. The Supreme Court was wrong,” Biden said, raising his voice. “It should be a constitutional right in the federal Constitution.”
“This isn’t about state’s rights,” Biden said. “It’s about women’s rights.”
“Trump is worried voters are going to hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he created,” the Democratic president claimed.
“Folks, the bad news for Trump is we are going to hold him accountable,” Biden stressed.
After the Florida Supreme Court placed the amendment on the state’s ballot, “the Biden campaign said it viewed Florida as ‘winnable’ and said it aimed to invest heavily in flipping the state,” The Hill reported ahead of Biden’s visit.
Tuesday marked “Biden’s first visit to Florida since the ruling,” noted The Hill.
“[Biden] believes he has a chance in Florida based on the issue of abortion,” FOX News hostess Martha McCallum stated on her show shortly before the president began his speech Tuesday afternoon.
McCallum explained that Biden believes the state’s pro-life law “could help benefit Democrats in the Sunshine State even though it has been very reliably red over the last several elections.”
In the 2020 election, Biden lost Florida to Trump by 3.4 points. In carrying the increasingly red state, Trump nearly tripled his 1.2 point margin over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Then in 2022, DeSantis won re-election by 19.4 points – defeating Crist, who lost by just one point when he was the party’s nominee in 2014.
DeSantis rebuked Biden’s appearance in his state shortly before the president’s pro-abortion speech.
“All I can say is this is a guy who has intentionally opened the borders of this country and caused great harm,” the governor stated earlier on Tuesday. “[Biden’s] policies have caused families to suffer with higher prices and higher interest rates.”
“And now he’s coming down to try to support a constitutional amendment that will mandate abortion up until the moment of birth, that will eliminate parental consent for minors, and that is written in a way that’s intentionally designed to deceive voters,” he continued.
“Floridians are not buying what Joe Biden is selling,” DeSantis emphasized. “[A]nd in November, we’re going to play an instrumental role in sending him back to Delaware where he belongs.”
A poll from earlier this month found that the “yes” side of Amendment 4 has a 17 point lead over the “no” campaign.
However, the percentage of voters who indicated they would support the amendment (42%), was well short of the required 60% threshold for it to pass.
“In order for the amendment to pass, it has to garner 60% of the vote,” CatholicVote reported on April 11. “This means that the pro-abortion side needs to win 56% of the currently “unsure” voters – a somewhat encouraging sign for the pro-life movement.”
The same poll found that Trump had a 13 point lead over Biden in Florida. “If this trend holds, Trump would be the first presidential nominee from either party to win Florida by double digits since George H.W. Bush in 1988,” CatholicVote noted.
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
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