President Biden opened a speech on democracy on Wednesday night with a description of the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband last week at their San Francisco home, less than a week before the midterm elections.
Paul Pelosi was allegedly assaulted with a hammer after the suspect allegedly entered the Pelosi house and inquired, “Where is Nancy?” according to police reports and court filings, according to Mr. Biden.
“It’s hard to even say,” the president said during his speech at Union Station. “… Those are the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol on January the 6th.”
The president said that “American democracy is under attack,” and that voters needed to defend it at the polls in his speech to the Democratic National Committee, which was just made public on Wednesday morning. The future of American democracy and dangers to it have been a recurring subject in Mr. Biden’s talks, and he has become more outspoken about identifying the political forces that, in his opinion, pose a threat to the democratic values of the country.
“American democracy is under attack because the defeated former President of the United States refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election,” Mr. Biden said. “He refuses to accept the will of the people.”
He characterized the upcoming elections as one in which voters must consider whether their vote will uphold or undermine democracy.
“Make no mistake,” he said. “Democracy is on the ballot for all of us.”
The president urged Americans to reject voter intimidation at the polls in addition to discouraging and condemning political violence.
“Democracy’s imperfect. It always has been,” he said. “But we are all called to defend it, now. Now.”
The president also cautioned against the use of conspiracy theories and urged people to exercise “patient” while waiting for election results. Twenty-seven million people in the United States have already cast their ballots, he noted, and since many states don’t begin tallying votes until after the polls close, some elections may not have results for many days.
Mr. Biden also noted this is the “first national election since the events of Jan. 6, when the armed, angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.”
“I wish I could say the assault on our democracy ended that day. But I cannot,” the president said. “As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America: for governor, Congress, for attorney general, Secretary of State who won’t commit, they will not commit to accepting the results of the elections they’re running in. This is a path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And, It is un-American. As I’ve said before, you can’t love your country only when you win.”
The president advised people to take into account whether a candidate will accept the results of the election, even if they lose, when they go to the polls and cast their ballots.
“My fellow Americans, we’ll meet this moment,” Mr. Biden said. “We just need to remember who we are. We are the United States of America. There’s nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.”
The Capitol Hill area was chosen as the location for the speech because of the violent attack on the nearby Capitol building on January 6, 2021, during which a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters attempted to “subvert our democracy.” according to Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to Mr. Biden, who made the statement at an event hosted by Axios on Wednesday morning.
“On Jan. 6 we saw violence geared towards subverting democratic processes there, so it is an appropriate place to make these remarks tonight,” she said. “And political violence, the threat of political violence, which most Americans find abhorrent, the idea that you would use violence to further your political means, you know, it’s something that unites almost all Americans, and that we can all be united against.”
In a Primetime speech from Independence Hall in Philadelphia in September, the president attacked the so-called “MAGA Republicans” for their anti-democratic viewpoints.
The midterm elections are approaching their conclusion, and Democrats are hope to keep control of the House and Senate with the help of Mr. Biden’s address. Recent CBS News polls, however, indicate that Republicans are likely to win a majority of seats in the House as long as people continue to be concerned about the economy, rising inflation, and an erratic stock market.
