With days to go before polls close in the United States crucial midterm elections, President Joe Biden has warned that democracy itself is at risk – from lies and violence, writes Al Jazeera.

After weeks of reassuring talk about the country’s economy and the cost of living, Biden turned to a darker, more urgent message on Wednesday, declaring that the US system of governance was under threat from former President Donald Trump’s election-denying lies and the violence Biden said they had inspired.

“Make no mistake, democracy is on the ballot for all of us”, - Biden said in a speech as Americans vote in an election that will decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the US Senate and House of Representatives. All 435 seats in the House are up for re-election along with about a third of Senate seats.

Biden, speaking to the Democratic National Committee at Washington, DC’s Union Station, said threats by some Republican candidates to refuse to accept the results from the November 8 elections if they lose was a threat to democracy.

“This driving force is trying to succeed where they failed in 2020 to suppress the rights of voters and subvert the electoral system itself. That is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it is un-American”, - the president said.