Biden urges voters to ‘preserve democracy’ by electing Democrats in closing midterm appeal

President Biden used a Wednesday night speech to describe the midterm elections as a choice between preserving democracy by voting for Democrats or putting it “at risk” by backing “extreme MAGA Republicans.” 

Biden asked voters yet again to recall a wild mob of Donald Trump’s supporters ransacking the Capitol last year— attempting to flip the focus from less favorable issues for Democrats, such as the economy.

“I know there’s a lot at stake in these midterm elections, from our economy, to the safety of our streets, to our personal freedoms, the future of healthcare, Social Security and Medicare — it’s all important,” the president said at Washington’s Union Station.

“But there’s something else at stake: democracy itself. … Democracy is on the ballot this year.”

Biden slammed Trump for claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him and claimed that politicians linked to his MAGA — or “Make America Great Again” — movement were preparing to deny the results of next Tuesday’s elections if they are unfavorable.

“Extreme MAGA Republicans aim to question not only the legitimacy of past elections, but elections being held now and into the future,” Biden charged. “The extreme MAGA element of the Republican Party — which is a minority of that party, as I said earlier, but is its driving force — is trying to succeed where they failed in 2020.”

“In a typical year, we are often not faced with the question of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put us at risk. But this year we are,” Biden continued at the Democratic National Committee-rented venue.”The remarkable thing about American democracy is this: just enough of us on just enough occasions have chosen not to dismantle democracy, but to preserve democracy. We must choose that path again,” he said.

Biden warned listeners that slow vote-counting should not foment fears of fraud, but then inadvertently undercut his own message by urging listeners to settle their differences at the “battle box” before correcting himself and saying “ballot box.”

“This is the first national election since the events of January 6th, when the armed, angry mob stormed the US Capitol. I wish I could say the assault on our democracy ended that day. But I cannot,” Biden said.

“As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America: for governor, for Congress, for attorney general, for secretary of state who won’t commit to accepting the results of the elections they’re in.

“This is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it’s un-American. As I’ve said before, you can’t love your country only when you win.”

Biden urged voters to scrutinize candidates based on whether they “will accept the legitimate will of the American people, of the people voting in his district or her district.” 

Polls currently favor Republicans to retake both the House and Senate, though many races remain close.

The president also broadly condemned political violence, including the recent assault with a hammer against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul by a longtime San Francisco nudist activist who allegedly adhered to conspiracy theories.

“There’s an alarming rise in the number of our people in this country condoning political violence or simply remaining silent, because silence is complicity,” said Biden, despite facing accusations himself of not forcefully condemning political violence during anti-police brutality riots in May and June 2020.

“The disturbing rise of voter intimidation, the pernicious tendency to excuse political violence, or at least at least trying to explain it away —we can’t allow the sentiment to grow,” he said.

Biden didn’t cite by name any Republican office-seekers who allegedly plan to deny the results of the upcoming election. He also did not specifically include Democrats in his rebuke.

Biden has repeatedly attempted to drum up support for Democrats by invoking the violent sack of the Capitol that interrupted certification of his Electoral College victory — including with a widely promoted Sept. 1 primetime speech in Philadelphia that was derailed by a vulgar heckler and criticized to a controversial backdrop of blood-red lighting and uniformed Marines.

Although many elected Republicans supported Trump-backed challenges to Biden electors from swing states on Jan. 6, those efforts were doomed to fail because Democrats held the House of Representatives at the time.

Democrats in Congress lodged their own objections to Republican swing-state electors in 2000, 2004 and 2016 when Democrats lost presidential elections. Among the objectors were Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who served as chief impeachment manager in Trump’s 2021 Senate trial for allegedly inciting the riot.

In other instances Democrats refused to gracefully admit defeat. Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton claimed that the 2016 election was “stolen” and that Trump was an “illegitimate president.”

Biden’s current White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has faced questions about her own election denialism, including her undeleted 2016 tweet bemoaning Clinton’s loss in a “stolen election” and her 2020 tweet telling followers that Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) “stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and [Democratic candidate] Stacey Abrams.”

“That comparison that you made is just ridiculous,” Jean-Pierre insisted when asked about her tweets at a September press briefing, adding, “I’ve been clear about that. I have said President Trump won the election in 2016. And I’ve been clear about that.”

A CNN poll released Wednesday showed that 51% of likely voters said the economy and inflation were the most important issues in determining their vote, followed by abortion (15%) and “voting rights and election integrity” (9%).-ADVERTISEMENT-

An NPR/PBS/Marist College poll released Wednesday, however, found 36% of those who said they were definitely voting Nov. 8 listed inflation as their top issue, but 31% said “preserving democracy” was most important.

A Pew poll released Oct. 20 found 79% of registered voters believe the economy is a very important issue — with respondents giving Republicans a 13% edge on their handling of the issue — but also that 70% said the future of US democracy was very important, with Democrats holding a 6% approval edge on the issue.