Any candidates in next week’s midterm elections who refuse to concede loss risk leading the country down “the path to catastrophe,” according to US President Joe Biden.
In addition, he asked Americans to vote on November 8 with one voice against “political violence.”
Democratic president Joe Biden claimed that former president Donald Trump and his backers were spreading “lies of conspiracy and hatred.”
Republicans responded by saying that Biden was attempting to “divide and deflect”.
In the elections scheduled for the next week, both chambers of Congress and significant state governorships are up for grabs.
According to most predictions, Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives, with the Senate having a split vote.
At Union Station in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, Mr. Biden delivered remarks that were broadcast across the country. Union Station is only a few blocks from the US Capitol, where Trump supporters stormed the building last year in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The “defeated former president,” as Mr. Biden called Mr. Trump, was accused of motivating some Republican candidates to threaten to reject the result if they lose next week.
According to Mr. Biden, “it is the road to disaster in America.” It is unheard of. It’s forbidden. It is also not American.
The president also tried to connect Mr. Trump’s campaign rhetoric to a hammer blow made last week against Nancy Pelosi’s husband, the speaker of the US House.
He claimed that the assault on Paul Pelosi, 82, and the uproar in the US Capitol were motivated by Mr. Trump’s “great lie” that the 2020 election had been rigged.
It’s a myth that contributed to the alarming increase in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years, said Mr. Biden
The president spoke as a federal judge in Arizona issued a restraining order against a group of Trump supporters who have been accused of intimidating voters near polling places in the border state while occasionally carrying weapons or donning ballistic vests.
Last week, the US government sent a message to law enforcement agencies alerting them to the “heightened threat” of domestic violent extremism and stating that politicians and election workers might be the target of those with “ideological grievances.”
In response to Mr. Biden’s comments, Republicans claimed he was attempting to divert attention away from his dismal support ratings and US inflation.
If his party gains control of the House of Representatives next week, House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who would take over as speaker of the lower house, tweeted: “President Biden is trying to divide and deflect at a time when America needs to unite – because he can’t talk about his policies that have driven up the cost of living.
The American public does not support it.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week, even though voter fraud is highly rare, half of Americans perceive it to be a prevalent issue.
Just over half of the 595 Republicans seeking state-wide office—306—have expressed uncertainty about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
