US votes with Biden agenda at stake - and Trump in the wings
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the midterm elections during and event at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee Oct. 24, in Washington, D.C. AFP-Yonhap
Polls opened Tuesday in crucial US midterm elections that could decide the political future of both President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump ― who has all but announced he will seek the White House again in 2024.
Biden's Democrats are facing a gargantuan struggle to hang on to Congress, after a race the president has cast as a "defining" moment for US democracy ― while Trump's Republicans campaigned hard on kitchen-table issues like inflation and crime.
Trump ― who has been heavily hinting at a new run ― grabbed the election eve spotlight to flag "a big announcement" on November 15, while Biden made a final appeal to Democrats to turn out en masse at the polls. "The power's in your hands," Biden told a rally near the capital. "We know in our bones that our democracy is at risk and we know that this is your moment to defend it."
With polls showing Republicans in line to seize the House of Representatives, the increasingly far-right party eyed snarling the rest of Biden's first term in aggressive investigations and opposition to spending plans. (AFP)