US President Joe Biden has warned the Republican Party of former President Donald Trump in next week's midterm elections could set the nation on "the path to chaos".
Biden issued the grim warning in a speech on Wednesday evening as the FBI and other agencies have forecast that threats of violence from domestic extremists are likely to be on the rise after the election, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Biden called on Americans to unite in opposition to "political violence" in Tuesday's midterm elections, which will determine control of both chambers of Congress and key state governorships.
"We must with an overwhelming voice stand against political violence and voter intimidation, period," he said. "Stand up and speak against it. We don't settle our differences in America with a riot, a mob, or a bullet or a hammer. We settle them peacefully at the ballot box."
He said Trump and his supporters were peddling "lies of conspiracy and malice".
'Chaos is US policy'
“Chaos is US policy, particularly that of Biden's administration and the Obama administration of which he was a part. Look at Libya, Syria, Yemen, much of Africa after Obama brought it Africom,” said New York-based journalist Don DeBar.
“And, by the way, Ukraine is probably the most chaotic real estate on the planet, thanks to the 2014 US coup,” he added.
Biden spoke at Washington’s Union Station — steps from the US Capitol, which was attacked by pro-Trump protesters in the wake of the controversial 2020 election — as a growing number of major Republican candidates said they may refuse to concede should they lose.
“It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it is un-American,” Biden lamented. “As I’ve said before, you can’t love your country only when you win.”
Biden: “There are candidates running for every level of office in America…who won’t commit to accepting the results of the elections that they’re running in. That is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented, it’s unlawful, and it’s un-American.” https://t.co/zjb0HKYZXB pic.twitter.com/2gurtrmCJ0
— ABC News (@ABC) November 2, 2022
Biden spoke days after an assailant broke into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and, beat her 82-year-old husband, Paul, with a hammer.
Pelosi said on Monday, “Paul is making steady progress on what will be a long recovery process.”
Biden opened his speech by addressing the gruesome assault.
“We must, with one overwhelming unified voice, speak as a country and say there’s no place, no place for voter intimidation or political violence in America, whether it’s directed at Democrats or Republicans,” the president said. “No place, period. No place, ever.”
Republicans hit back at Biden saying he was seeking to "divide and deflect".
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel issued a statement calling Biden’s words “desperate and dishonest.”
“Joe Biden promised unity but has instead demonized and smeared Americans, while making life more expensive for all,” McDaniel said. “While Republicans remain focused on the issues that matter most to voters, Biden and Democrats are flailing.”
Fears of political violence are growing in the United States ahead of the November 8 midterm elections.
Last week, numerous US government agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, issued a memo warning that threats posed by domestic violent extremists would probably increase in the midterm election period, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Washington Post.
The memo described possible scenarios that could cause more violence, including “actual or perceived efforts to suppress voting access.”
“Following the 2022 midterm election, perceptions of election-related fraud and dissatisfaction with electoral outcomes likely will result in heightened threats of violence against a broad range of targets — such as ideological opponents and election workers,” the memo read.
Trump and his allies have pushed claims about the 2020 election, with many GOP-led states passing laws to address the large claims of voting fraud.
Trump and his allies had raised concerns that widespread fraud marred the election and that it was rigged by the Washington establishment in favor of Biden, who was certified as the winner in Congress on January 6.
Those claims also helped fuel the Jan 6., 2021 attack at the Capitol, when Trump supporters occupied the US Capitol while lawmakers were in the process of reviewing the certification of state electors which indicated Biden's victory. Some Trump supporters had hoped that this process could have resulted in some of the electors being disqualified, thus overturning the outcome of the presidential election.
It is claimed by some that the demonstrators were infiltrated and incited by provocateurs from US intelligence agencies, who orchestrated the “false flag operation” in order to get rid of Trump.
Some among the crowd clashed with police, and some made threats to beat up a number of Democratic lawmakers. Some also inflicted damage on parts of the Capitol building.
“January 6 was the conclusion of the theft of the election, but it was stolen from Trump, not by him,” said Don DeBar, a New-York based journalist.
Sixty-six percent of respondents to the USA Today/ Suffolk University poll, published on Sunday, said that the US was headed down the wrong track.