What to Know in Washington: Biden Asks Voters to Spurn ‘Big Lie’

President Joe Biden asked voters to consider the future of democracy when they vote in next week’s midterm elections, urging them to reject Donald Trump’s “big lie” denying his 2020 defeat that’s fueled political extremism and violence.

“I appeal to all Americans, regardless of party, to meet this moment of national and generational importance. We must vote, knowing what’s at stake,” Biden said in a speech from Union Station in Washington, not far from the site of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.

“The issue couldn’t be clearer in my view: we the people must decide whether we will have fair and free elections,” Biden added.

He said more than 300 people who deny the result of the 2020 election are on ballots across the country and urged voters to reject them.

“As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America: for governor, Congress, attorney general, secretary of state, who won’t commit, they will not commit, to accepting the results of the elections that they’re running in,” Biden said. “That’s the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it is un-American.”

Biden also drew a line from Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 vote and the attack on the Capitol to the assault on Paul Pelosi, the husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“It was an enraged mob that had been whipped up into a frenzy by a president repeating over and over again the big lie that the election of 2020 had been stolen. It’s a lie that fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years,” he added.

Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg

President Joe Biden issued a fresh warning about threats to US democracy at a Democratic National Committee event in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Katrice Eborn in Washington at keborn@bgov.com