Biden to give primetime speech on ‘soul of the nation’ in Philadelphia on Thursday night

Event will take place outside city’s historic Independence Hall on Thursday

President Joe Biden will deliver a prime-time speech on the “battle for the soul of the nation” on Thursday ahead of the midterm elections later this year.

The White House says that Mr Biden will travel to Philadelphia on Thursday to give the speech at the city’s Independence National Historical Park.

An official told NBC News that the speech in the battleground state of Pennsylvania would focus on how America’s “rights and freedoms are still under attack”, echoing his message from his 2020 victory over Donald Trump.

The president will highlight the progress he says the country has made to protect democracy during his administration but will tell the country that those rights and freedoms are at risk.

“He will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy,” the official said.

The speech will be given outside Independence Hall and is set to start at 8pm EST, in which both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by the country’s Founding Fathers.

Democrats are trying to hold on to majorities in both the House and Senate when the country goes to the polls on 8 November.

Last week, at a rally for the Democratic National Committee in Maryland, Mr Biden branded MAGA Republicans, like Mr Trump, “a threat to our very democracy.”

“They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace political violence. They don’t believe in democracy,” he said.

“This is why, in this moment, those of you who love this country, Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined, and more committed to saving America than the MAGA Republicans are to destroying America.”