On the eve of the mid-term elections which could reduce him to a form of political powerlessness, Joe Biden launched, Monday, November 7, a last appeal to mobilize the voices around the Democratic camp.
“The time has come for you to defend democracy”chanted the American president campaigning in Bowie, Maryland, on the outskirts of Washington. “We viscerally know that our democracy is in danger”he still assured, while Republican candidates in the various polls gathered under the name midterms threaten to contest a possible defeat. “We will be there. Power in America is where it has always been: in your hands, the hands of the people.”added Joe Biden.
The choice to go to a historically black university is significant for the 79-year-old Democratic president, elected largely thanks to the support of the African-American community, which he has tried to remobilize in recent days. Faced with a generally enthusiastic audience – with the exception of a few vocal opponents quickly exfiltrated by security – he also tried to paint the Republicans as the party that “wants to get rid” social progress initiated under his mandate.
“Saving the American Dream”
Former President Donald Trump was campaigning in Ohio, an industrial state in the Midwest, emblematic of an America distressed by globalization, which thinks it has found its providential man in the billionaire. Faced with a tide of red caps – the color of the Republicans – Donald Trump raised the suspense over a possible announcement, as of Monday evening, of his candidacy for 2024.
“I’m going to make a very big announcement on Tuesday November 15 at Mar-a-Lago”, his residence in Florida, he announced. He took the opportunity to paint an extremely bleak picture of America under Joe Biden. A country where soaring prices “strangles households”where the “violent crime is out of control” and where the extreme left “indoctrinates our children”. “There is only one solution to end this madness”pleaded the former president. “If you want to end the destruction of our country and save the American dream, you must vote Republican tomorrow”he assured
Joe Biden, for his part, says so far that he intends to run again in 2024, but the prospect does not delight all Democrats, because of his age – soon to be 80 – and his unpopularity.
The initiatives of the Biden administration scrutinized
This confrontation by meetings between the current and the former president concludes a campaign which has crudely exposed the divisions of the first world power. The Americans will renew the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate. Many major local elected positions are also at stake.
After his meeting, Joe Biden once again assured that he was ” optimistic “ on the outcome of the ballot. He conceded, however, that keeping control of the House of Representatives would be ” hard “. Republicans believe they can not only take the lower house – which is the classic scenario in these traditionally difficult elections for the White House party – but also wrest Joe Biden’s slim control of the powerful Senate.
Faced with the effectiveness of a Republican campaign centered on galloping inflation, the Democratic president had a hard time touting purchasing power reforms, which will only be felt in several years. His camp has therefore, beyond these economic subjects, sought to the end to paint the Republican Party as a threat to democracy and social achievements such as the right to abortion.
In the event of victory, the conservatives promise to scrutinize all the initiatives of the Biden administration, including internationally. Kevin McCarthy, possible future Republican boss of the House of Representatives, repeated on CNN on Monday that he did not want “no blank checks” to Ukraine if his party won a majority. The White House countered that US support would be “steadfast”regardless of the outcome of the ballot – which may settle slowly, as the votes are counted.