Biden warns of threat to democracy ahead of midterms as election deniers hold firm
US President Joe Biden emphasised the stakes of the November 8 midterm elections in a televised address from Washington on Wednesday.
Many extreme Republican and Trump supporters have long refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, which sparked the storming of the US Capitol last year in an attempt to overturn the results. Of the former President Trump, Biden said he had fuelled “anger, hate, vitriol and violence”.
He also accused Donald Trump and his staunchly Republican supporters of undermining democracy if they again refuse to accept a losing vote, saying, “Make no mistake: democracy is on the ballot for all of us”.
While control of the Senate seems too close to call, polling forecasts suggest Republicans could win control of the House of Representatives.
Just as the divide between Conservatives and Labour creates media bias in the UK, US media rallies behind either the Democrats or Republicans, particularly in a post-Trump presidency – in many instances, more overtly than in the UK. And although left/right politics isn’t representative of the same things across international politics, international coverage of Biden’s speech maintained their political leaning, showing either support or derision based on their left/right leaning partiality.
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- Biden’s speech was sharply partisan, ignoring Democrats who protested the results of the 2016 election, falsely declaring Trump an illegitimate president elected because of Russian influence.
- Biden repeated many of the talking points about democracy he has pursued since his inauguration, again blaming Republicans for endangering the future of democracy in the United States.
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Watch full: President Biden’s remarks on protecting democracy
- President Joe Biden called the midterms a “defining moment” for democracy as voter intimidation and political violence loom over the upcoming elections.
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Biden calls midterms a ‘defining moment’ for democracy amid political violence and voter intimidation
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Despite these obvious divisions, some media outlets tried to remain as fairly centred to the facts as possible, as well as the more socioeconomic concerns of voters and his campaign, alongside potential implications based on the current polls.
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- Even if the Democrats suffer a painful blow in the midterm elections next week, the president believes he is still the party’s best hope of beating Donald Trump in 2024
