Despite Election Deniers Running in Key States, O’Dea Says the ‘Only Threat to Democracy Is Biden and Bennet’

With election-conspiracist Republicans having a real chance of winning in key swing states across the country, GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea jumped on right-wing radio Friday to say, “The only threat to democracy is Biden and Bennet and the agenda that they put in place that’s suppressing all of us here.”

O’Dea made the comment in response to a radio host’s claim that President Joe Biden accused people who would vote against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of being “a threat to democracy.”

“You hear Joe Biden say that all of us that are going to vote against his agenda, vote against Michael Bennet or Jared Polis, he called us all a threat to democracy this week,” said KCOL’s Jimmy Lakey. “What kind of atmosphere do you think, if we have this red wave in Washington, D.C., that you’ll get, when the president says that Joe O’Dea is a threat to democracy because you’re daring to challenge his vision for America?”

In a nationally televised speech last week, Biden said, “As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America, for governor, Congress, attorney general, secretary of state, who won’t commit, they will not commit to accepting the results of the elections that they’re running in,” Mr. Biden said, flanked by a series of flags in the capital’s train station. “This is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it’s un-American.”

The range of threats to American democracy go beyond this election. Some analysts have pointed out that if election deniers win this year in swing states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin — and the GOP controls of the U.S. House — the table would be set for a crisis culminating in a Republican president, who lost the 2024 election as Trump did, being selected by the GOP-controlled House.

O’Dea told Lakey that Bennet and Biden are the greatest threat to democracy because of government spending. “We got more government than we’ve ever had before,” said O’Dea. “We got more spending than we’ve ever had before. And these guys are responsible for it.”