WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to deliver remarks Wednesday night on the importance of protecting democracy and the threat posed by election deniers as part of his final pitch to voters heading into midterms next week.
In the remarks, Biden is expected to echo past warnings he has made about the threat posed by those who spread false information about the validity of the 2020 election, according to a statement from the Democratic National Committee. Biden has repeatedly accused Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump of promoting “extremism.”
“President Biden has been speaking about democracy for the entire time he has been in office and before then, and I think you can expect to hear from him this evening, similar to what he’s been saying over the course of the last several months, that there is a lot at stake, including democracy and that everyone has a role in that,” said White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon during an event hosted by Axios.
Open thread!
WaterGirl
Looking forward to the speech.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I have two simultaneous zoom meetings tonight, starting at 6:20 so I’m going to miss it. Boo.
MomSense
My internet keeps crapping out. Hopefully it will hold for this speech.
BTW did anyone see the SNL horror/Biden skit? It was really funny.
twbrandt (formerly tom)
@Dorothy A. Winsor: two simultaneous zooms? You know how to have maximum fun, don’t you?
japa21
Once again the major networks are not carrying. That is criminal.
Azhrie139
@japa21: Why would lovers of fascists cover anti-fascist messaging?
Bupalos
@MomSense: i found it pretty scary. The moral was “we’ll agree on biden because we’re frozen in fear and afraid to do anything else.”
Elizabelle
It is reassuring to hear decency.
Foo on the networks for not carrying this. I hope they come to regret that decision.
Omnes Omnibus
Biden is good at this.
Scout211
@MomSense: Thanks for tip. It was great. I just watched it. Here’s the link.
Horror Movie Trailer.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@twbrandt (formerly tom): I’m talking to a community college class and then going to my writer group
MomSense
@Bupalos:
I’d say that’s an accurate assessment of how people feel.
Elizabelle
That Biden has to make this speech is chilling.
That the networks see his message as “partisan” or “controversial.” Shame be on them.
JPL
@japa21: The local PBS stations did not carry it
Guess my stations didn’t think he was good for ratings.
twbrandt (formerly tom)
@Dorothy A. Winsor: A great thing about zoom is that you can have meetings without having to leave home. There are certainly trade offs, but that’s a great benefit, imo
oatler
@JPL:
Coincidentally it’s pledge month at PBS.
Kropacetic
Biden got me thinking would we have higher participation at a “battle box” vs a ballot box?
JPL
@oatler: Since I’m in GA, it would have been nice to see it on once channel. The idea that Wheel of Fortune is as important as democracy is sickening. I actually have two PBS channels, and neither carried it.
lowtechcyclist
@Elizabelle:
Yeah, now that one party is filled with candidates who’ve refused to say they’ll abide by the election results, the nets regard it as ‘partisan’ and ‘controversial’ when the President says that’s an essential feature of democracy, and that people should vote on that basis.
To me, that’s even more scary than Biden needing to make this speech in the first place.
JPL
@lowtechcyclist: It’s not just networks. PBS did not cover it live here.
Maybe if he gave the speech at 4 they would have mentioned it on newshour.
Kropacetic
More so even…
It’s even more shameful when one considers these same networks would blather over an image of an empty podium in anticipation of TFG’s latest verbal diarrhea.
schrodingers_cat
This election depends on white women voting for Ds over Rs. Will they? I have no clue. The special elections post Roe offer some hope that will be the case.
Jackie
Until recently, whenever the President gave a speech in prime time, ALL networks carried it live. Another way democracy is being eroded.
If I didn’t want to watch it, HGTV or The Food network or previous recorded shows were an option. BUT we always had to actually change the channel to avoid watching it. More often than not I ended up watching just to see what lies GWB or TFG were spewing.
E.
This speech sounds like something you give right before something really awful is about to happen. It’s chilling. “Defining moment,” “inflection point.”
schrodingers_cat
Snooze Hour has been rooting for the so called Red Wave for weeks now.
JPL
@E.: I know.
Argiope
@schrodingers_cat: College-educated white women are reportedly voting D in large numbers. It’s the non-college-educated ones that may not.
Jackie
@E.: If the GQP win either House, something ominous WILL happen.
Kropacetic
I mean, not all of them.
schrodingers_cat
@Kropacetic: A statistical majority of white women >50% is what we need.
Last election in 2020 it was 46%
Link here
If we can bump that up to 50.1% even Rs will be toast.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jackie:
What possible justification could they have for not carrying his speech live, if they were willing to do so for much of the Trump admin? We need to demand answers from these networks
WaterGirl
@Jackie: The White House didn’t have this on Joe Biden’s schedule, and it wasn’t even available on their White House LIVE page.
C-Span didn’t even have the speech live on their page, but it is up there now, at least.
Also, I googled “Joe Biden speech today youtube” and several other iterations of that, and nothing came up. I was impressed that TaMara was able to find it LIVE online at all.
Jackie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That’s a good question I don’t have an answer to.
Elizabelle
@E.: Yes. It does.
We have to outvote them. I suspect we are on the way to doing that.
As if they aren’t doing enough already, the FTF Fucking NY Times has not been allowing reader comments on most of its political stories.
Seriously. They were too clever by half: there have been no reader comments on the Paul Pelosi attack stories (that I have seen; correct me if I have missed some — they did allow comments on a related Maureen Dowd column) AND: the full day that the news broke, the FTF Fucking New York Times was covering it in a breaking news roundup column. And those generally do not have reader comments. For just about all of the day.
I mean, it was not a sporting match. Other, better papers were able to get their stories up, coherently and in regular news form, that day. The outline of the story came together somewhat rapidly. It did not need to be parceled out, a paragraph or two at a time.
The WaPost had more than 7,000 reader comments on their story, and maybe a lot more. (You’ll recall, it’s the same day M*sk acquired Twitter. Maybe some of that was people forgoing that as a commenting platform.)
All you get at the Fucking New York Times is tales of impending doom, told by their crack political staff. And no way to bat back, or see that you are not alone in thinking how crazed the reporting is.
Oh, and when the FTF FNYTimes full Paul Pelosi story finally was published online? It ended with a resident’s ominous words about crime in the city. CRIME CRIME CRIME.
As if this was not a targeted attack. (In a very wealthy area, too.)
They couldn’t work anything in about inflation. To my recollection.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT:
Thinking back to 2017 and all the phone calls/faxes/emails people sent to GOP offices, I remember the staff asking for things like ZIP codes to know if you were a resident in their district/state. I can’t remember if they asked for things like addresses or not.
Would any of you feel comfortable giving that info to GOP staffers these days? I know voter info is public, but still
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Interesting. C-Span had the link to the impending speech up when I checked about 6:45 or so, but maybe it was late arriving.
It was a good speech. I missed the very beginning.
I am grateful to you and this blog for informing me of major speeches.
Bupalos
@E.: Yeah this version of politics has to change for us. The big D closer here is just begging not to toss out democracy? We can’t stay crouching in this corner, it’s ridiculous.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Crime in Dallas was also really high in 1963.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
I wouldn’t classify it as begging, but urging and reminding people of what’s at stake. The messaging appears to be working if early turnout data is anything to go by
gwangung
@Bupalos: It is not at all clear that even the progressive part of the country realizes that, let alone the moderates and the shit pule right wing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Elizabelle:
I’ve gotten basically giggled at almost by people when I suggest crime isn’t an issue overall
Some asshole last week chuckled at me and said, “It’s a fact” that crime/murders in Philadelphia were up some 70% since 2020. And then he talked about how he knew all about “socialism” because of his second/vacation home in Paris and having to deal with the EU with taxes, etc. Or something. 🙄
Even mentioned that inflation was 5-6%, so he awknowledged basically that inflation was worldwide
Anyway, TBF to the NYT, perhaps they disabled comments to prevent hateful bile from right wingers being on their comment sections?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@gwangung:
Based on what?
gwangung
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Jeezus. Wonder if there was some factor in 2020 that might have affected people being around each other….
brendancalling
@JPL: this is why I stopped giving them money. Presidential addresses are the public’s business, and way more important than a rerun of “Fresh Air.”
gwangung
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Just talking to my circle of acquaintances. There’s intellectual recognition, but not necessarily an emotional one.
Baud
@gwangung:
I can see that.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Crime is a concern for me. It affects my approach to local elections. Why would you suggest it’s NBD?
Wyatt Salamanca
@JPL:
Also too, Pat Sajak once posed for a photo with Marjorie Taylor Greene. One more reason to dislike Wheel of Fortune. It’s hosted by a goddamn wingnut.
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): that’s just a pretty remedial message. Come out to vote to make sure you have the right to vote.
I mean, yeah, sure, but your opponent has a message too and as deluded and insane as it is, it’s obviously a lot more viscerally motivational.
schrodingers_cat
@Wyatt Salamanca: I have not watched that show even once.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Suzanne:
Because it’s usually a right-wing dogwhistle. Police departments often lie, they’ve basically been on strike across the country for the last few years, and by and large haven’t gotten budget cuts
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
Dobbs is pretty viscerally motivational for a lot of people. So is Social Security and Medicare
Baud
@Bupalos:
I don’t think our message is less viscerally motivational than theirs. I think their people respond more viscerally to fearful messages.
Misterpuff
@Elizabelle: I hope they will skate, because it will mean the fascists lost.
Though it would be great if the “Fake News” all ended up in the camps.
But my rational brain does not want to live in that world.
Suzanne
Crime genuinely has gone up in this country in recent years. It’s a real concern. My Spawn and her friend were literally followed in an alleyway this afternoon.
I’m not dumb and I recognize that the right wing often attempts to dishonestly exploit issues when they have no intention of working toward a solution. But, fuck, don’t tell people not to be concerned about something that they are concerned about.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Neither PBS station carried it, and neither did Atlanta’s two NPR stations. Public broadcasting my pasty white ass.
JoyceH
@schrodingers_cat:
Seriously?! I think Dobbs by itself will make up that deficit.
Bupalos
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): i don’t think this is true really. The secret sauce the GQP has here is that no one really believes they can accomplish the kind of racial and sexual “going back” that they promise. It all exists in a kind of marginal world of pretend for the vast majority of people, both supporters and opponents. We’re going to be perpetually disappointed if we keep waiting for the backlash.
Baud
@Bupalos:
I agree with that. We are backlash obsessed.
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: Crime is a problem. From nuisance and economic crime like catalytic converter thefts, porch pirates, breakins, to existential crime like getting mowed down at school or your workplace.
But it’s not more important than democracy, or reproductive choice, or voting rights, or any of the really important issues on the ballot.
It’s what the GOP has to sell though. Fear fear fear. Crime, crime, crime.
I don’t like the overemphasis on it. This hardly means it does not exist.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Suzanne:
I suppose on reflection, I’d say I’m more worried about far-right domestic terrorism and autocracy. That frightens me more. No one is safe when the state has the power to make you disappear for simply disagreeing with it. Or even pissing off the wrong person.
That’s not to dismiss the experiences of your family or anyone else. But the bigger picture to me is that Republicans will not do anything to actually improve crime rates, exactly the opposite in fact, which you awknowledge. Moreover, they’re drivers of destabilizing violence
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
How do you know any of that? Women have registered Democratic in record numbers in many states and are voting accordingly. We are outperforming our previous voting numbers from previous years. Special elections this year are further evidence of this.
And I don’t think anyone is “waiting” for it. All of us have been working our collective asses off for the past several months to make this possible result a reality
Cameron
@Suzanne: True. I wouldn’t tell anybody what to think about crime if I didn’t know their circumstances. I loved (and still love) Philly, but I did get mugged five times over the years there. Not concerned about that where I am now, since it’s sort of a half-assed suburbia and all of my fellow Olds have cameras monitoring everything around them.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): All of us are far more likely to be a victim of “common” crime than right-wing stochastic terrorism. I will also note that women are probably more vulnerable to violent crime. But that’s not really my point.
It is absolutely never — not ever — effective messaging to tell people that they are full of shit. (Even if they are.) If you are genuinely trying to be persuasive to someone who brings up crime as a concern, and you tell them that it isn’t really something they should worry about, the is about a 99% chance that that person will never listen to you again.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I think a lot of liberals have gotten used to being insulted by having their concerns dismissed out of hand that they’ve internalized it as a way to behave.
I do believe that what people are most concerned about is often the result of propaganda and manipulation, but I agree with you that one cannot solve that problem by telling those people that they’re concerns aren’t real.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Sorry about the scary experience your Spawn and her friend had.
But:
Suzanne
@Cameron: Last week, we found out that the guy who broke into our house in January will be offered a plea bargain with no additional time in prison. He has a twenty-year-long history of low-level shitty behavior. I am a good bleeding-heart second-chance type, but this is, like, this dude’s tenth chance. And shitloads of assholes like this carry guns around.
The increase in crime is another sign that our social fabric is fraying. It’s a real concern.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Suzanne:
Never say never, especially if shit were to really hit the fan
I’m not saying they shouldn’t be concerned about it at all. Rather my point is that there are worse things to be concerned about, like the GOP trying to turn the US into Nazi Germany, for example. Our basic rights are under threat
And I do want to apologize if I’ve dismissed your concerns. I’m genuinely sorry about what’s happened to your family
Kropacetic
@schrodingers_cat: As long as it’s sufficient to deal us a workable majority, I can live with it. And I’ll be grateful for the roughly half we get whichever way it falls win or lose because they showed up
I don’t understand how any demographic can go for the Republicans. They shit on literally everyone except a shrinking rich powerful minority and even some significant portion of them should have some moral fiber
Perhaps a matter of sparrows and curtain rods
Apologies for the multiple iterative edits to add. They’re everywhere in there.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: I think there’s more up-to-date info showing a pretty significant jump.
From Axios:
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: Sorry to hear that. Yikes. I have never forgotten your experience with that home invader.
Cameron
@Kropacetic: Except for the super-rich, who shit on them. ETA: should have read your post all the way through.
schrodingers_cat
Despite the perception of many voters to the contrary violent crime has not gone up since the pandemic.
Data here
From Pew not a RW garbage site.
Baud
@Suzanne:
FWIW, I think crime, like inflation, is an outgrowth of the disruption of the pandemic. I believe it is inherently temporary, assuming no new major disruptions. Just a gut feeling. I have no evidence to cite.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I think you’re right, and a lot of the lower level stuff is pandemic/disruption related. It feels that way to me.
And, of course, corruption and economic crime (major league tax evasion) are somewhat silent. But they undermine us even more.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Suzanne:
Out of curiosity, what messaging do you like to see on crime? What would you like to see done?
Nelle
@Suzanne: I’m a second-chance person too, but I gratefully was a witness in a trial that put away who had had second chances for about thirty years. He was given life without parole as a sexually violent predator. I was able to fight him off and for years, I thought of myself as a badass. After I testified (and was flown from New Zealand to the States to do so), I found out that I was extremely fortunate to have encountered him in the early part of one of his cycles. Those whom he assaulted later in his cycle had no chance. He needed to be separated from society. I got very realistic about repeat offenders.
Kropacetic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I like to see messaging about new approaches in policing and rehabilitation but I reliably vote for Democrats so I don’t expect to see myself messaged to very much.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
This was a political speech not a presidential speech. Sure they showed SFB bloviating about absolutely nothing (or normal BS for him). Joe Biden is democratic politician and the news shows are owned by people with money who are likely conservatives or are conservatives. They want a government that does not want to tax or have any control of them or their businesses at all. They want not to be told anything about their content because faux news doesn’t get told anything, they get to spew BS and hate and whatever they want. I’ve solved the problem of TV, I don’t have TV. I can see news on the computer any time I want. I am line of sight to Mt Wilson, the SoCal TV broadcast antenna location, when I moved here I purchased a small antenna to insure I could get broadcast TV. I used it for 2 days and threw it away. I get Netflix and the internet. I’m better off.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Our basic rights are absolutely under threat. My basic safety when I leave my house is also under threat. Hell, my safety in my house doesn’t have a great track record, either. I have had three home invasions in my life. This most recent one is the only time the perpetrator was caught. And there have been other crimes, too.
Again, the things people are concerned about may have more or less basis in reality. But you will never convince anybody to vote Democratic by blowing their concerns off.
I will note that one of the most obnoxious things I ever hear from libertarians is, “The state has a monopoly on violence”. It’s a thing I hear smart mansplainer-types say. The reality is that, if no one is ever brought to justice for a crime because the state determines that it’s not a good use of resources, then the effect is that the state extends that permission to violate to others. So again, crime isn’t just about individual criminals or places. It’s very much about the bonds of society, and those have been frayed by COVID, by Trump, by January 6, by QAnon and all this crazy shit.
Suzanne
@Baud: @Elizabelle: I think it has something to do with the pandemic, too. I also think it has links to climate change, to high costs of housing, and probably a lot of other things,
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Honestly, I am all for releasing nonviolent offenders and restoring the rights of ex-convicts to vote….but I’d be fine with longer sentences for violent criminals.
Jackie
This is interesting:
”One of Donald Trump’s official representatives to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been granted criminal immunity and is set to “soon testify” before the federal grand jury investigating the Mar-a-Lago documents, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.”
“Kash Patel, a former Devin Nunes aide who worked in the Trump administration, reportedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when he testified before the grand jury in October.
“A federal judge recently decided the Justice Department couldn’t force Mr. Patel to testify without such protection against his statements being used against him in some future prosecution,” the newspaper reported. “That ruling, the people said, opens the door for Mr. Patel, who says Mr. Trump broadly declassified White House documents while still president, to answer questions.””
https://www.rawstory.com/kash-patel-2658590086/
The article is from the WSJ – which I don’t have a paid subscription to.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne: I’m pretty sure that the quality of the wine on my flight today constituted a crime. And don’t get me started on the biscoff….
unrelatedwaffle
@Suzanne:
I really recommend John Oliver’s recent piece on crime reporting (and the one on bail reform from this past Sunday). Good stats in there. Crime has been going down for decades. Sociologists have been tracking public perception of crime vs reality for as long. People are generally disproportionately afraid of local street crime and not, like, car crashes and cancer. Anecdotal data is not helpful in the big picture. https://youtu.be/kCOnGjvYKI0
raven
@Steve in the ATL: GATA!!!!~
dww44
@JPL: the strings that control their funding are in the hands of the GOP. What we need in this country are some truly independent and not for profit news outlets. Our public tv stations are also now too dependent on corporate funding. But I dare say they were leaned on quite hard about this. The state GOP is an angry wounded bear since 2020. They want power over and above any other consideration. That’s how we got Candidate Walker.
unrelatedwaffle
See also for context. Crime has gone up the past couple years, but we’re nowhere near levels of the early 90s.
Princess
@Suzanne: I think rise in crime in my big city is related to disruption of the drug trade during Covid — their revenue stream was cut so they made it back in carjackings and catalytic converters. Possibly decriminalization of pot played a role too (I still support it). And I also think the whole pandemic plus George Floyd stuff contributed to a general and widespread feeling of anarchy that plays itself out in drag races, fireworks, huge crowds downtown, terrible driving etc. Plus the cops are on strike and holding us hostage. anyway my sense is was worst while Trump was president and is slowly improving. And you are 100% correct that telling people not to worry about what they’re worried about will never win you a single vote.
James E Powell
I’ve seen a lot of talk about crime & some links to articles that show increases, but I haven’t seen a complete breakdown to show which crimes or kinds of crimes are increasing.
Saying “violent crimes” are up isn’t enough. How many are spousal/partner/family? How many incident to a robbery? How many are barfights? and so on.
Suzanne
@unrelatedwaffle: I agree that many people are irrationally concerned about scary-but-low-probability events and are too blasé about mundane threats, but it was ever thus. There’s lots of sources indicating that crime declined from its peak in the 80s/90s but that there was a bounce during the pandemic. Whatever the actual crime rate is, tho, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to be concerned about it. There is plenty of room for a good-faith discussion about what the GOP can offer (nothing).
What I object to is the dismissal, telling someone who you are trying to persuade that the thing they’re concerned about really isn’t that important. Plenty of people don’t get to go through life in good neighborhoods.
RaflW
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The networks, like the major dailies, sure act as if they never have to answer to liberals/progressives/Dems.
I don’t believe we should be making violent threats as our opponents do. But something has to happen that lets these businesses (even PBS is a business, just one without an overt profit directive) know we will no longer tolerate being shunted aside.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Suzanne:
This is so true, throughout life, not only in political discourse.
@unrelatedwaffle:
Also true, but emotional reaction to a hypothetical threat is often not in proportion to the statistics. This is particularly true for a threat connected to lived personal experience.
[Suzanne]
I ask myself, what can I do to empathize with someone whose experience I don’t personally share? Be humble.
Qrop Non Sequitur
A rebranding exercise
Qrop Non Sequitur
Oh hello Balloon Juice all stars presumably watergirl this is in fact me trying to change my name. Saw moderated post deleted