Democracy 'at risk' in midterm elections says Joe Biden

President Joe Biden warned on Sunday (November 6) that a Republican win in Tuesday's (November 8) midterm elections could weaken U.S. democracy, two days before votes in which Republicans could gain control of both chambers of Congress.

Republicans have hammered Biden for high inflation and increased crime in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and non-partisan forecasters favor them to win control of the House of Representatives - and possibly the Senate as well. Democrats' early leads in Senate races in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada have evaporated.

Control of even one chamber would allow Republicans to stymie Democrat Biden's legislative agenda and launch potentially damaging investigations.

Biden warned that many Republican candidates are threatening democratic norms by echoing Trump's false claims about a stolen election in 2020.

“Democracy is literally on the ballot,” he told students at Sarah Lawrence College, north of New York City. “You can’t only love the country when you win.”

Biden also characterized the rise in rhetoric supporting political violence by some on the right as unprecedented since the Civil War.

Biden spoke in normally safe Democratic territory outside New York City, where Republicans are threatening to make gains.