On 5 December Joe Biden called Donald Trump an ‘existential threat to the country’s system of government’, in response to Trump’s recent comments claiming it is Biden who is really the ‘destroyer of American democracy’. This exchange reflects how the issue of protecting democracy and Trump's baseless attacks on the 2020 election could be key in the 2024 presidential election. Biden, who looks increasingly likely to be headers for a rematch against Trump, has sought to define the election in terms of protecting not just democracy but personal liberty. He noted that Trump has said he would give presidential pardons to many of the people charged or convicted in connection with the January 2021 attack on the Capitol. He also attacked Trump for appointing three Supreme Court justices who joined an opinion in 2022 that reversed Roe v Wade, the national guarantee for abortion access, and added, ‘He's running again to get rid of the Affordable Care Act’ (popularly known as Obamacare). Later that day, Biden said, ‘We cannot let him win’.