Warning that democracy itself is in peril, President Joe Biden called on Americans Wednesday night to use their ballots in next week’s midterm elections to stand up against lies, violence and dangerous โultra MAGA” election disruptors who are trying to โsucceed where they failedโ in subverting the 2020 elections.
This is no time to stand aside, he declared. โSilence is complicity.โ
After weeks of reassuring talk about America’s economy and inflation, Biden turned to a darker, more urgent message, declaring in the final days of midterm election voting that the nation’s system of governance is under threat from former President Donald Trump’s election-denying lies and the violence Biden said they inspire.
The president singled out โultra MAGAโ Republicans โ a reference to Trump’s โMake America Great Again” slogan โ calling them a minority but โdriving forceโ of the Republican Party.
Pointing in particular to last Friday’s attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosiโs husband, Biden said that Trumpโs false claims about a stolen election have โfueled the dangerous rise of political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years.โ
โThereโs an alarming rise in the number of people in this country condoning political violence or simply remaining silent,โ Biden added. โIn our bones we know democracy is at risk, but we also know this: It’s in our power to preserve our democracy.โ
The presidentโs speech โ focused squarely on the rite of voting and the counting of that vote โ amounted to a plea for Americans to step back from the inflamed rhetoric that has heightened fears of political violence and challenges to the integrity of the elections.
Biden was straddling two roles, speaking as both a president defending the pillars of democracy and a Democrat trying to boost his partyโs prospects against Republicans.
He called out the hundreds of candidates who have denied the 2020 election result and now refuse to commit to accepting the results of the upcoming midterms.
โThis driving force is trying to succeed where they failed in 2020 to suppress the rights of voters and subvert the electoral system itself,” Biden said.
โThat is the path to chaos in America. Itโs unprecedented. Itโs unlawful. And it is un-American.โ
The speech came days after a man seeking to kidnap House Speaker Pelosi severely injured her husband, Paul Pelosi, in their San Francisco home in the worst recent example of the political violence that burst forth with the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol and has continued with alarming, though less-spectacular incidents.(France24)