White House: Biden democracy speech is a reaction to GOP election deniers

The White House on Wednesday said that President Biden is giving remarks on democracy because of the “alarming number” of Republican officials who have said they won’t accept the results of the midterm elections.

“The president … is making this speech because we’re seeing an alarming number of Republican officials who are saying, they’re being very clear, they’re not going to accept the results of these elections. That’s a problem,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“He’s going to continue to call this out. What we’re seeing is an attack on our democracy and the president has been very clear, we need to protect our democracy, we need to strengthen our democracy.”

Biden will deliver a speech on Wednesday evening from Union Station that is focused on the threat of election deniers. The speech will be hosted by the Democratic National Committee. He gave another democracy-focused speech in September in Philadelphia, which was an official event, while Wednesday’s is a political event.

An analysis from The Washington Post last month found that a majority of Republican candidates for the House, Senate and key statewide offices deny or question the outcome of the 2020 race. 

However, some candidates who have questioned the outcome of the 2020 election, like Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance, have said they will accept the results the midterm elections.

The attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, Paul Pelosi, also factored into the president’s decision to make the speech, according to Jean-Pierre.

Paul Pelosi was attacked early Friday morning in the couple’s San Francisco home and underwent surgery for a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands.

“Clearly we are seeing an uptick, a sad uptick, of rhetoric, of political rhetoric, coming from extreme Republicans in office and also yes, we saw this violent, awful, horrific attack on Paul Pelosi. And so there are reasons that he believes the time is now to make sure that he spoke directly to the American people,” Jean-Pierre said.

During a Tuesday fundraiser in Florida, Biden ripped Republicans who joked about the attack on Paul Pelosi, and he criticized those who didn’t offer a full condemnation of the incident. 

When asked if Biden has reached out personally to Republican leaders to offer more forceful response, Jean-Pierre said Biden shouldn’t have to call them and that “it should not be controversial to speak out against political violence.”

Additionally, she called it a “ridiculous question” when asked if Biden thinks it is a threat to democracy if an American votes for a Republican.  She added that Biden would also call out Democrats who deny election results.

“We are talking about mega MAGA Republican officials who have been very clear about this,” she said. “They have been very clear about pushing and peddling the Big Lie, pedaling dangerous conspiracy theory. And so that’s what we’re talking about.”