CNN
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President Joe Biden Wednesday issued a warning that America’s democracy is under attack from Holocaust deniers running for office at all levels as he tries to make democracy defense a major issue in the week’s midterm elections next.
“This bullying, this violence against Democrats, Republicans and nonpartisan officials who are just doing their jobs, is the result of lies told for power and profit, lies of conspiracy and malice, lies repeated over and over again. again to generate a cycle of anger, hatred, vitriol and even violence,” Biden said. “Right now we have to confront these lies with the truth, the very future of our nation depends on it.”
The speech — a political event hosted by the DNC, not the White House — underscored points Biden has been raising for weeks since a primetime speech in Philadelphia. The speech, which covered many of the same topics the president touched on Wednesday night, was criticized by Republicans and others for being too political for a formal White House event.
The setting of the speech near Capitol Hill is meant to refer to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building intended to disrupt certification of Biden’s victory.
The president’s advisers told CNN that Biden and his team have been considering giving a speech on the subject for some time – but their decision-making and thinking in recent days has been shaped by what they have seen as a surge of anti-democratic rhetoric and threats of violence.
One recent headline in particular that has deeply alarmed Biden and his top advisers: the violent attack on Paul Pelosi last week that authorities say was politically motivated.
The shocking home intrusion and attack on Pelosi landed the 82-year-old in hospital for surgery, and he has since been recovering from a fractured skull, among other injuries.
Advisers said before the speech that Biden felt it would be important for him to directly condemn these kinds of threats and acts of violence. He will also want to speak directly to election deniers, they said, in an effort to counter, in part, Republican elected officials and candidates who have openly said they may refuse to accept the results of the upcoming election next week.
The theme of protecting the soul of the nation — and the pillars of the country’s democratic system — was central to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. The president has since spoken on these topics throughout his presidency, but Wednesday’s speech will mark an effort to forcefully underscore what is at stake as we approach the halfway point.
Defending democracy has been a animating feature of Biden’s thinking this political season and has emerged most abundantly in his off-camera conversations with Democrats. The day before his speech in Washington, Biden warned a group of Democratic donors in Florida that “democracy is on the ballot” this year – and offered some sort of preview of his message for a day later.
“How can you say you actually care about democracy when you deny there is a victory? The only way to win is to either win or cheat the other guy,” he said at the event, which was held in the backyard of a beachfront mansion in Golden. Beach, Florida.
“That hasn’t happened since the civil war. It sounds like hyperbole, but it hadn’t happened since then, bad as it is now,” he said.
Biden’s Civil War reference hardly seemed like a coincidence; he was seen this week carrying a copy of historian Jon Meacham’s new book, ‘And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle’, which explores how the 16th US president dealt with secession and threats to democracy .
Meacham is an informal adviser to Biden and has helped write some of his most high-profile speeches.
In his remarks at the Florida fundraiser, Biden noted the attack on Paul Pelosi and said it was hardly surprising given the rhetoric from Republicans. The attack on the House speaker’s husband is one of the reasons Biden decided to give Wednesday’s speech, officials said, though plans have been in the works for some time.
“Look at the response – the so-called response – from the Republicans, making jokes about it and/or saying, ‘Well, you know, it’s not because of what’s said and unsaid,'” Biden said of the assault.
“The reason people do what they do is that there are a lot of unstable people in a population as large as ours. When they hear these outrageous lies every day — these outrageous lies on every level,” Biden said.
“How can you be surprised? ” He asked. “The guy buys a hammer to kneel the #3 in line to be President of the United States of America – #2 in line, I should say, to be the… President of the United States of America. And no one in this party condemns him for exactly what he is.
Biden previously laid out the stakes two months ago, traveling to Philadelphia, where he issued an urgent rebuke to former President Donald Trump and those aligned with his attempts to undermine democracy.
“As I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under attack,” Biden said then. “We are doing ourselves no favors to pretend otherwise.”
Biden clearly warned at the time of what he called “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”