President Joe Biden delivers a speech on preserving and protecting electoral democracy at Union Station in Washington on November 2, 2022. MICHAEL A. MCCOY / AFP
“You can only love your country if you win. In a solemn and dramatic speech delivered Wednesday, November 2, six days before the midterm elections, Joe Biden attempted to impose a sense of existential urgency for America on defiant, hesitant or weary voters. “Democracy is at stake,” repeated the American President, and again – without naming him – questioned Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement associated with him. The latter, according to Joe Biden, represents a “minority of the Republican Party” that “makes noise” and tries to “undermine the electoral system itself”.
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“American democracy is under attack because the defeated former President of the United States refuses 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. By spreading lies about imaginary frauds, Donald Trump and his movement have “fueled a dangerous two-year surge in political violence and voter intimidation,” he added.
The President recalled that “more than 300” Republican candidates ran in different ballots on November 8 and refused to pledge to recognize the result. “This is the road to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s illegal. And it’s anti-American. Joe Biden is now denouncing attempts by Republicans to disrupt the smooth voting process. “Rather than waiting for the election to wrap up, they start long before that,” he said of the Trump movement. You start now. They are involved in violence and intimidation of voters and election officials. »
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Joe Biden also prepared the public for the likely confusion in the days after the election due to state differences in counting early votes. 26 million ballot papers have already been physically deposited or sent by post. However, some states do not plan to open them until after the polling stations have closed on November 8th. It will probably be a few days before the official results are available.
“Silence is complicity”
Joe Biden opened the Midterms campaign on September 1 with a celebratory speech in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), which already aimed to portray the election as an extraordinary moment. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our democracy,” he said. A week earlier in Maryland, the President had even used the term “semi-fascism” to describe the MAGA base. Democrats hoped this slide would allow them to change the nature of the vote itself, which is traditionally an assessment of the incumbent government.
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