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WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden warned that a Republican win in today’s midterm elections could weaken US democracy, while former President Donald Trump hinted at another White House bid, two days before votes in which Republicans could gain control of both chambers of Congress.
The comments, made at dueling rallies held in New York and Florida, highlighted the grim prospects that Biden’s Democrats face, despite fulfilling his promises to boost clean-energy incentives and rebuild crumbling roads and bridges.
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.”
At a Trump rally in Miami, meanwhile, the former president recycled many of his unfounded complaints about the 2020 election and hinted that he may soon announce another presidential bid.
LONDON - Rishi Sunak has taken the extraordinary step of publicly rebuking Matt Hancock for his decision to join ‘I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here’ for an estimated £400 000 fee while meeting world leaders at Cop27 in Egypt.
The prime minister (PM) said he was ‘very disappointed’ in the former Health Secretary, who he believed would alienate voters in his West Suffolk constituents more than 10 000 miles from his ITV jungle camp.
Sunak refused to say if he had spoken to Hancock before he headed Down Under and when asked if he would join the army of Members of Parliament (MPs) and millions at home who will vote for him to do Bushtucker Trials, the PM insisted he ‘genuinely won’t have time to watch’.
With Hancock due to enter the camp this week, in a stinging rebuke last night, Sunak said: ‘‘I think politics is a noble profession, at its best - it can and should be. But it’s incumbent on politicians to earn people’s respect and trust. They do that by working hard for their constituents, as the vast majority of MPs do. That is why I was very disappointed with Matt’s decision.
‘‘The vast majority of MPs are really hard-working - they got into it because they want to make a difference for their communities.’’ He told The Sun: ‘‘Most MPs spend their time street by street, constituent by constituent, trying to make a difference, that’s what my colleagues do. That’s really special and why I was disappointed with what Matt did.’’