Biden links Paul Pelosi attack to Trump rhetoric

President Biden used his closing address ahead of next Tuesday's midterms to warn of what he sees as a straight line from former President Trump's election denial to last week's attack on Paul Pelosi.

Why it matters: Speaking at Union Station, blocks from the Capitol Dome, Biden argued that Trump's "big lie that the election of 2020 had been stolen" was the driving force behind both the attack on Pelosi and the Capitol. "It's a lie that fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years."

Details: Biden preemptively denounced any Republicans who won't accept next Tuesday's election's results, arguing that the looming contest is about a much bigger issue than any of his specific policies.

“We’ll have our differences,” he said. “But there’s something else at stake, democracy itself.”

Cutting straight to an issue that has terrified senior White House officials and Democratic candidates, the president repeated the alleged words of Pelosi’s assailant — “Where's Nancy? Where's Nancy?" — before reminding Americans that “those are the very same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol."