US NEWS: Joe Biden praises Americans’ ‘firmness, determination’ in the Christmas message

U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday praised Americans for their strength and resilience in the face of the devastating Covid-19 epidemic, urging “hope and renewal” over the holidays.

In his first Christmas address as president, Biden praised “the great courage, character, resilience, and determination of all of you who are healing, comforting, educating, and protecting and working in great and small ways.”

“She shows that we can gain a lot by appreciating the gift of time and the interest we share as we care for each other,” Biden said in a statement with First Lady Jill Biden.

“Over and over again, he shows how precious our differences and our infinite similarities are.”

Biden, a devout Catholic, went on to say that “we pray for the nation, the promise found in the Scriptures – to find light in the darkness, which is probably the American thing that must be done.”

Later on Saturday, the Bidens spoke to members of the United States’ home-based ministry and overseas. Also present at the event was a recent member of the first family, a German shepherd puppy named Commander.

“As your senior commander, I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you, thank you, thank you,” Biden told troops based in Qatar, Bahrain, Romania and the US state of Colorado.

“She is a strong national backbone,” he said, recalling that her son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, had worked in Iraq.

“Jill and I know how hard it is for you” to spend the season of being away from loved ones, he added.

“It replaces the worst of what is missing,” Biden said in his presidential message.

Jill Biden, on the other hand, referred to her father who served in the United States Army during World War II.

As Americans are hit by a deadly epidemic and economic hardship fueled by recorded inflation, the presidential couple focused on end-of-year traditions – forgiving turkey at Thanksgiving and decorating the White House for Christmas – sending messages of hope. and happiness.

But as the country was shaken by deep political divisions, even pre-Christmas greetings turned sour in Biden on Friday, when a man wishing a Merry Christmas during a video call from the White House, introduced the famous insult. among Biden’s predecessors Donald Trump.