Six days ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, President Joe Biden issued a fresh warning about the threats posed to the country’s democracy, saying election deniers are putting America on “the path to chaos.”
“There are candidates running for every level of office in America … who won’t commit to accepting the results of the elections they’re in,” Biden said in a Wednesday evening televised address inside Washington’s Union Station railway station. He said voters next week should ask whether the candidates on their ballots will accept the results of their own races, win or lose.
“The answer to that question is vital and in my opinion it should be decisive. And [on] the answer to that question hangs the future of the country we love so much and the fate of the democracy that has made so much possible for us.”
In the 21-minute speech, Biden criticized his predecessor, Donald Trump, for continuing to make false claims about a stolen 2020 presidential election, saying that has “fueled the dangerous rise of political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years.”
"All of us who reject political violence and voter intimidation and I believe that's the overwhelming majority of the American people,” he said, “all of us must unite to make it absolutely clear that violence and intimidation have no place in America."
Some Republican lawmakers call Biden’s concerns and rhetoric overblown and meant to shift public focus away from what they call the Democratic Party’s policy failures.
“President Biden is trying to divide and deflect at a time when America needs to unite – because he can’t talk about his policies that have driven up the cost of living. The American people aren’t buying it,” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, reacting to the Biden speech, said in a tweet.
While Biden and others in his party have made the fate of democracy a central focus of their closing arguments ahead of the midterms, conservatives have focused on the state of the economy.
According to a new Gallup poll released this month, 51% of Americans surveyed said they trust Republicans more with the economy, compared with 41% who said they trust Democrats. That is the widest gap Gallup has seen in more than 30 years. According to a recent Monmouth University poll, 82% of Americans said inflation was an "extremely or very essential issue" for the federal government to solve. The same poll found barely 3 in 10 Americans approved of the job Biden was doing to tame the rising cost of living.
Biden begins a four-state, three-day campaign swing on Thursday to support Democrats in competitive races in California, Illinois, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.
The outcome of this election will likely determine whether Biden can enact major portions of his agenda during the remaining two years of his term. Most polls predict Republicans will win enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives. A Republican takeover of either chamber of Congress would make passing all but the most broadly bipartisan measures difficult.
Reporter Matt Haines in New Orleans contributed to this story. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
