PresidentJoe Biden’s midterm election eve rally in Maryland turned combative when the president hit back at a heckler who was aiming to interrupt the event.
Noticing a man in an Uncle Sam hat heckling him from the upper reaches of the venue at Bowie State University, Mr Biden paused his address, looked up towards the heckler, and said, “Hey! Hey man! Don’t jump! You look crazy enough to jump — don’t jump!”
Mr Biden has a long history of engaging colourfully with hecklers at campaign events — employing a similar line in Pennsylvania during his own campaign for the White House in 2020.
On this occasion, Mr Biden was in Bowie to rally with the Democratic ticket in Maryland as the party looks to reclaim the governor’s mansion in the state after two terms of Republican leadership under outgoing Gov Larry Hogan.
The Democratic candidate, Wes Moore, has held a double-digit polling advantage over his Republican opponent Dan Cox — a far right politician who represents a considerable break with the more moderate Mr Hogan. If Mr Moore is elected on Tuesday, he will become the first Black governor in Maryland history.
Mr Biden has maintained an increasingly active campaign schedule in the final days before a midterm election that will determine much about the remainder his first term and potentially more about his still-uncertain political future.
Mr Biden appeared with former President Barack Obama at a Philadelphia rally for Senate candidate John Fetterman over the weekend, but has more often made appearances to try to boost Democratic enthusiasm in traditionally Democratic states like Oregon and New York.
In his campaign appearances, as well as a speech in Washington, DC, Mr Biden has emphasised the threat that the Republican Party increasingly poses to the country’s democracy and framed the election as “the most important” in his lifetime.
This week, Mr Biden and his team will begin to see whether the gravity of that message about the future of democracy resonated in the midst of voter concerns about inflation. The Republicans are heavily favoured to retake control of the US House, while the two parties are in a competitive race for the Senate.
