President Joe Biden issued a stark warning about the future of American democracy and how it could rest on next week’s midterm elections.
Biden’s urgent appeal comes six days before final ballots are cast in an election that the president framed in nearly existential terms. Biden warned democracy itself is at risk, from both lies, and from violence.
“We can’t take democracy for granted any longer,” the president said to the Democratic National Committee at Washington, DC’s Union Station.
His sharp message comes after weeks of reassuring talks about the country’s economy and the cost of living.
Now, Biden has taken a darker and more urgent tone, declaring the system of governance is under threat from former President Donald Trump’s election-defying lies and the violence it has inspired.
Biden said threats by some Republican candidates to refuse to accept the results from the November 8 elections if they lose was a threat to democracy.
“This driving force is trying to succeed where they failed in 2020 to suppress the rights of voters and subvert the electoral system itself,” the president said. “That is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it is un-American.”
Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election when he lost. His supporters stormed and assault the Capitol to block the certification of Biden’s legitimate win.
Biden suggested the preponderance of candidates for office at every level of government who have denied the results of the last presidential contest was a red-flashing warning signal for the country.
The election will decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate and House of Representatives. All 435 seats in the House are up for re-election along with about a third of Senate seats.
Republicans are expected to take the House, and the Senate is still too close to call.
Biden’s message was anything but optimistic. He remained hopeful that Americans would reject the forces he described, and would preserve democracy itself. But he warned against intimidation, violence, hate, and lies.
“This intimidation, this violence against Democrats, Republicans, and non-partisan officials just doing their jobs, is the consequence of lies told for power and profit, lies of conspiracy and malice, lies repeated over and over to generate a cycle of anger, hate, vitriol, and even violence,” Biden said.
“At this moment, we have to confront those lies with the truth, the very future of our nation depends on it.”
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