Biden Campaign Continues To Refer To Blue Bell As Valley Forge

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — In the days following President Joe Biden's landmark campaign speech at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, multiple campaign spokespersons have continued to refer to the event as occurring at Valley Forge National Historical Park, despite the two locations being some 15 miles away from each other. It's drawn criticism from some analysts and figures on the right who were already eager to poke holes in Biden's efforts to align himself with George Washington and the Continental Army wintering at Valley Forge in 1777-1778.

In the leadup to the President's visit, the campaign also characterized his speech's location as "at" or "near" Valley Forge, leading to much confusion among residents who were receiving simultaneous notices of the event in Blue Bell.

While President Biden did arrive in Valley Forge on his Marine One chopper in the afternoon before his speech, he did not deliver any remarks at the park. He and First Lady Jill Biden took a private tour with park rangers and laid a wreath at National Memorial Arch, but there was no public event.

The misleading description has not escaped the attention of Philadelphia area natives, nor historians.

"They call this the 'Valley Forge speech' but it wasn't delivered in Valley Forge, it was delivered in Blue Bell, PA," former Independence National Historical Park interpreter D. Thomas Adams shared on social media. "This unnecessary & euphemistic depiction is also disturbing."

"In Valley Forge and in Charleston, President Biden spoke to the fundamental threat facing our democracy," Biden-Harris 2024 Communications Director Michael Tyler said Wednesday. "As President Biden reminded us in Valley Forge, he is fighting for that same sacred cause in this election," spokesperson Kevin Munoz added in a separate Wednesday briefing. And minutes after the speech, official campaign literature referred to the event as "near Valley Forge."

While the latter frame of reference is technically true on a broader regional or certainly national scale, describing Blue Bell in that way is no more accurate than giving a speech in center city Philadelphia and calling 4th and Market "near Valley Forge."

It draws additional importance when considering the intent of Biden's speech, to use one of the pivotal moments in American history as a symbol for the present crisis facing democracy. But it was not Blue Bell where Washington made his stand.

Analysts have speculated that Biden did intend on speaking at Valley Forge itself, when the speech was originally scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 6. However, aspirations to have the speech coincide with the three-year anniversary of the Capitol riots were foiled by a bad weather forecast, and the speech was moved to Friday the fifth at the community college.

Largely, national media has fully gone along with the Biden campaign's repeated suggestion that Blue Bell is synonymous Valley Forge. The Washington Post labeled it "Biden's Valley Forge speech." NPR, and even Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, called it "near Valley Forge."

"The national media has fallen lock, stock, barrel for the idea that Biden is "speaking in Valley Forge" today," national columnist Will Bunch said.

Multiple requests to the Biden campaign to clarify whether the President planned on speaking at Valley Forge itself were not answered.

Read more about President Biden's visit to Montgomery County:

• Excerpts Of President Biden's Montco Speech Released Ahead Of Time
• President Biden Lands In Valley Forge National Park On Marine One
• Road Closures, Schedule Ahead Of President Biden's Montgomery Co. Visit