Biden to warn election deniers pose 'unprecedented' threat to America

In Politics
2022-11-02 13:27:29Z
By Reuters

By Andrea Shalal and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden will say on Wednesday that threats by some Republican candidates to refuse to accept election results if they lose is a "path to chaos" and will urge voters to reject election deniers.

The White House released excerpts of a speech Biden was to deliver later on Wednesday night as he tries to help Democrats face down a strong challenge from Republicans and maintain control of the U.S. Congress.

Biden will say that the Nov. 8 elections are the first since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. "I wish I could say the assault on our democracy ended that day. But I cannot," Biden will say, according to the excerpts.

Biden will speak at a 7 p.m./2300 GMT Democratic National Committee event at Washington's Union Station near Capitol Hill.

He will urge voters to "think long and hard about the moment we are in."

"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," he will say.

"That is the path to chaos in America. It's unprecedented. It's unlawful. And, it is un-American," Biden will say.

The Democratic National Committee said Biden would "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."

Biden believes it is important to speak out "loud and clear" against political violence and those who have said they will not accept the results of the elections, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

"This is an inflection point," she told a regular White House briefing. "What the president believes that what he is seeing and what we are hearing from MAGA Republican officials - extreme Republican officials - who say they are not going to accept this election, is a threat to our democracy."

WORRIED AMERICANS

The speech comes against the backrop of the U.S. Capitol assault last year and the weekend attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Democrat, senior White House adviser Anita Dunn told an Axios event.

Most midterm forecasts predict Republicans are almost certain to take control of the House, and show the Senate is a toss-up.

Looking ahead to 2024, Dunn said Biden intends to run for re-election, as he has said previously. Though a formal announcement is yet to come, "we are engaged in some planning," she said.

Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the official certification of Biden's victory in the November 2020 election.

While reviews by dozens of courts, state authorities and members of Trump's own administration have repudiated his false claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud, he has continued airing them since leaving office.

Voter fraud is extremely rare in America, but a substantial number of Americans are concerned. A Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Monday found that 49% of Americans think that voter fraud is a widespread problem, with 34% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans holding that view.

Some 44% said they are concerned that the U.S. election is rigged, including 28% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans.

Despite those beliefs, 67% of respondents said they were confident their own ballots would be accurately counted, including broad majorities of Democrats and Republicans.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Jeff Mason; wrting by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu, editing by Deepa Babington)