“American democracy is under attack because the defeated former president of the United States refused to accept the results of the 2020 election,” Biden said. “He refuses to accept the will of the people, he refuses to accept the fact that he lost. He abused his power and put loyalty to himself above loyalty to the Constitution. And he has made a big lie an article of faith of the MAGA Republican Party, the minority of that party.” The president, speaking at a Democratic National Committee event at Union Station near the Capitol, warned the audience that the country faced a crossroads in next week’s election that could upend democracy. The speech came less than a week after an alleged assailant broke into the speaker’s home and attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer. Biden briefly focused on the attack at the start of the speech, but his broader message was for Americans to reject political violence, voter intimidation and voter denial as hundreds of GOP candidates are on the ballot next week for various offices that they declined to say whether they would accept the results if they lost. “There’s a lot at stake in these midterm elections … but there’s something else at stake: democracy itself,” Biden said. Shut up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here The latest in politics and policy. Straight to your inbox. Sign up for the Morning Report newsletter The speech echoed Biden’s speech in early September in Philadelphia, when he said Trump and his allies, the so-called MAGA Republicans, were a threat to American democracy. The president on Wednesday argued that Americans should be able to agree on three things: that the right to vote is sacred, that political violence should be condemned and that they believe in democracy. “We don’t settle our differences in America with a riot, a mob, or a bullet or a hammer. We’re peacefully installing them at the ballot box,” Biden said, referring to the attack on Pelosi. The speech comes six days before elections that will determine who controls Congress and after millions of Americans have already voted. Biden has repeatedly emphasized that the midterms should not be seen as a referendum on his job performance, but as a choice between two starkly different visions for the country. While some in the Democratic Party believe the focus should be on kitchen-table issues like lowering gas, grocery and energy costs, Biden has been clear that the differences between the two parties extend to fate. of democracy itself. Biden argued that Trump-aligned Republicans would try to “succeed where they failed in 2020” by trying to “suppress voter disenfranchisement and subvert the electoral system itself.” Biden acknowledged that the outcome of the midterm elections may not be decided for days after Election Day, urging Americans to be patient. “It has always been important for citizens in a democracy to be informed and participate. Now it is important that citizens also be patient. That’s how it should work,” he said. He said there has been no election in US history other than the 2020 election where Americans can be more confident about the results because legal challenges and recounts have been mounted that have proven the results were accurate. “It was an angry mob whipped into a frenzy by a president who repeated over and over the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It is a lie that has fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years,” he said. “Silence is complicity,” he said, saying there was an “alarming increase” in people in the US condoning political violence. Lofgren calls for answers from Capitol Police over Paul Pelosi attack Sisolak trails GOP challenger in Nevada governor’s race: poll When he opened his remarks detailing the attack on Paul Pelosi, he noted that the assailant said “where’s Nancy,” echoing words shouted by the Jan. 6 mob, some of whom stormed and ransacked the President’s office. Paul Pelosi was attacked early Friday morning at the couple’s San Francisco home and underwent surgery for a fractured skull and serious injuries to his right arm and hands. Biden decided to make Wednesday’s remarks because of an “alarming number” of Republican officials who have said they will not accept the results of the midterm elections, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said earlier Wednesday. The attack on Paul Pelosi also contributed to the president’s decision to make the speech, according to Jean-Pierre.
