Biden to ask voters to protect democracy from election lies

WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of reassuring talk about America’s economy and inflation, President Joe Biden is turning to a darker, more urgent message, warning in the final days of midterm election voting that democracy itself is under threat.

The president, who has been focused on drawing an economic contrast between Democrats and the GOP, is aiming to shine a spotlight on “ultra MAGA” Republicans — a reference to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — and mounting concerns over political violence. The speech comes days after a man seeking to kidnap House Speaker Nancy Pelosi severely injured her husband, Paul Pelosi, in their San Francisco home and as physical threats have rattled members of Congress and election workers.

Emphasizing that it is the first federal election since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Trump’s attempts to overturn the will of voters in the 2020 presidential election, Biden will call on voters to reject candidates who have denied the results of the vote — which even Trump’s own administration declared to be free of any widespread fraud or interference.

“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,” Biden will say, according to prepared remarks released by the Democratic National Committee. “That is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And, it is un-American.”

Biden will ask voters to “think long and hard about the moment we are in.”

“In a typical year, we are not often faced with the question of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put it at risk,” he will say. “But we are this year.”

Biden will deliver his remarks from Washington’s Union Station, blocks from the U.S. Capitol, the White House said, just six days before polls close on Nov. 8 and as more than 27 million Americans have already cast their ballots.

“It’s from Capitol Hill, because that is where there was an attempt to subvert our democracy,” said White House senior adviser Anita Dunn told Axios, referencing to the Jan. 6 attack.

“The threat of political violence which most Americans find abhorrent, the idea that you would use violence to further your political means, it’s something that unites almost all Americans and that we can all be united against, and obviously, we’ve seen horrible things happen quite recently,” Dunn said.

Previewing Biden’s remarks, she said the Democratic president “will be very clear tonight that he is speaking to people who don’t agree with him on any issues, who don’t agree on his agenda, but who really can unite behind this idea of this fundamental value of democracy.”

“What we are seeing is an alarming number of Republican officials suggest they will not accept the results of this election,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

“This is not a regular moment in time,” she added. “He’s going to call it all out.”

Biden last delivered a prime-time speech on what he called the “continued battle for the soul of the nation” on Sept. 1 outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, in which he condemned the “MAGA forces” of Donald Trump and his adherents as a threat to America’s system of government.

“They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country,” Biden said then.

The new remarks come as hundreds of candidates who have falsely denied the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election are on ballots across the country, with many poised to be elected to critical roles overseeing elections.

In contrast to the September remarks, which drew criticism from some corners for being paid for by taxpayers, Biden’s Wednesday night speech is being hosted by the Democratic National Committee.

“The president will address the threat of election deniers and those who seek to undermine faith in voting and democracy; and the stakes for our democracy in next week’s election,” the DNC said.

Many Americans remain pessimistic about the state of U.S. democracy. An October poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 9% of adults think democracy is working “extremely” or “very well,” while 52% say it’s not working well.

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AP writer Seung Min Kim contributed.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections.

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