“It’s not about me, it’s about us, what makes America America”: Six days before the half-term elections, US President Joe Biden solemnly addressed voters on Wednesday, November 2, warning candidates who were prepared to refuse the result of the vote. “It’s unprecedented, illegal, and anti-American”ensuring that this “opens the way to chaos”. “Make no mistake, it is democracy that is at stake in these elections”, he again underlined before the National Democratic Committee.
He lamented that Trump’s false claims about the results of the 2020 presidential election had “fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years.”
Referring in particular to the attack on the president’s husband of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, he regretted the“alarming increase in the number of people in this country who approve” this violence or “who simply remain silent”. “To be silent is to be an accomplice”, he warned.
During the ballot on November 8, the Americans are called upon to renew all of the 435 seats in the American House of Representatives and a third of the Senate. Currently, both chambers have a Democratic majority. A whole series of governorships and local elected officials are also at stake.
“There are candidates running at every level of power in America, for governor, for Congress, for attorney general, for secretary of state, who don’t commit to accepting the results. of the elections in which they participate”worried President Biden.
This is particularly the case in Arizona. of Kari Lake, gubernatorial candidate in the hotly contested state, whose meteoric rise is of particular concern to the Democratic camp. The Republican continues to denounce the result of the 2020 presidential election, assuring that the election was stolen from Donald Trump, despite countless evidence to the contrary. “I will win the election, this is the result that I will accept”threatened this fifties at the microphone of CNN.
First national ballot since the Capitol stormed
Joe Biden particularly denounced the “ultra MAGA” Republicans – a reference to Mr. Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” – calling them a minority but a ” motor force “ of the Republican Party. They “are trying to succeed where they failed in 2020, namely suppressing voters’ rights and subverting the electoral system itself”, he warned.
The record number of candidates denying the election of Joe Biden, the disinformation shared through social networks and the country’s deep political divisions have authorities fearing acts of violence on the sidelines of the November 8 elections. Some electoral and elected officials have already said they have noticed an increase in threats and intimidation. America must oppose the “political violence and voter intimidation”repeated Joe Biden. “We can no longer take democracy for granted”he continued.
Also listen Midterms 2022: American elections under tension
The midterm elections are the first nationwide poll Americans have taken part in since supporters of Donald Trump attacked the headquarters of Congress on January 6, 2021 in untold chaos. “I wish I could say the assault on our democracy ended that day. But I can not “said Joe Biden, who is trying somehow to focus the debate around this question, when the Republicans attack him on his economic record.
The weight of inflation
Former President Donald Trump, who never admitted his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, seems to be preparing to challenge the result of the midterms, if they were to be unfavorable to the Republicans. ” Here we go again ! Election rigging! »said, without any proof, the billionaire, omnipresent in the campaign, on Tuesday on his social network, Truth Social.
Accusing the Democratic president of a management “cruel” inflation, the Republicans are showing more and more confidence in their chances of depriving him of his majorities in Congress. According to many polling institutes, the rising cost of living and economic issues are at the top of voters’ concerns. The right to abortion, around which the Democrats have tried to mobilize their base, is relegated to the background. According to the most recent opinion polls, the Republican opposition has a very good chance of taking over the Chamber. The fate of the Senate remains more uncertain.