Biden hails ‘strong rejection of election deniers’ as world watched U.S. election

President Joe Biden said on Monday that last week’s election results showed a “strong rejection of election deniers at every level.”

Biden made his remarks at a press conference during the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In his speech, Biden said the U.S. midterm elections showed the “strength and resilience” of American democracy. He singled out the poor performance among Republican candidates who falsely asserted that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

“There was a strong rejection of election deniers at every level, from those seeking to lead our states and those seeking to serve in Congress and also those seeking to oversee the elections,” Biden said.

He added: “It’s been clear just how closely the world and our allies and our competitors as well have been following our elections at home.”

“What these elections showed is that there’s a deep and unwavering commitment in America to preserving and protecting and defending democracy,” he concluded.

Republican candidates for office in 2022 latched on to Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud, which led to the right-wing insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that took place on Jan. 6, 2021. Following the attack, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for the second time, but the Senate voted against the charges.

Trump and his allies backed election-denying candidates running for secretary of state in six battleground states, where the Trump campaign tried to throw out his losses during the 2020 race. Those officials oversee and certify election results.

All of the election-denying Republican secretary of state candidates lost their races, including Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem. Finchem held a fake “hearing” in 2020 with Trump legal adviser Rudy Giuliani during which they promoted conspiracy theories about the election results. Finchem also was a key organizer of the sham “audit” of the election results in Arizona.

Finchem lost to Democratic candidate Adrian Fontes, who repeatedly criticized Finchem for attempting to undermine the democratic process.

Doug Mastriano, an election denier running for governor of Pennsylvania, lost by double digits to his Democratic opponent Josh Shapiro.

Republican candidates at the federal level who denied election results also lost, such as New Hampshire Senate candidate Don Bolduc, who lost to Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan. Bolduc frequently promoted 2020 election conspiracies.

Not all Republican election deniers lost their races last week. Republican leaders who have continued to promote false election claims, such as Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, were reelected.

Other Republican candidates, like Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, came within striking distance of their Democratic opponents.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.