Joe Biden implores US voters to save democracy from lies, violence as midterms loom
- President Joe Biden asked voters to consider the future of democracy when they vote in next week’s US midterm elections
- He urged Americans to reject Donald Trump’s ‘big lie’ denying his 2020 defeat that’s fuelled political extremism and violence
Warning that democracy itself is in peril, US President Joe Biden called on Americans to use their ballots in next week’s midterm elections to stand up against lies, violence and dangerous “ultra MAGA Republicans” who are trying to “succeed where they failed” in subverting the 2020 elections.
This is no time to stand aside, he declared. “The silence is complicity”.
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, who has been focused on drawing an economic contrast between Democrats and the Republican Party, shined a spotlight on “ultra MAGA” Republicans – a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan – calling them a minority but “driving force” of the Republican Party.
“There’s an alarming rise in the number of people in this country condoning political violence or simply remaining silent,” Biden added. “In our bones we know Democracy is at risk, but we also know this: it’s in our power to preserve our democracy.”