U.S. President Joe Biden kicked off his first campaign event of the year, squarely making the case to voters that his predecessor Donald Trump is a danger to democracy and shouldn’t be returned to the White House.

Biden’s remarks Friday offered some of his sharpest warnings yet about the threat he says Trump poses to the country’s institutions, a message Biden is placing at the center of his re-election bid as polls show the two barreling toward a rematch for which Americans have little appetite.

"Donald Trump’s campaign is about him. Not America, not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy,” Biden said near Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. "Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot,” he added.