Biden, Trump clash on eve of midterm polls

Republicans and Democrats traded final blows yesterday ahead of midterm elections that could upend Joe Biden’s presidency, weaken Western support for Ukraine and even open the door to a comeback bid by Donald Trump.More than 40mn ballots have been cast through early voting options, meaning the outcome was already taking shape with hours to go before polls open nationwide today.In a typically attention-grabbing move, Elon Musk used his newly purchased Twitter social media site to endorse a Republican takeover of Congress.“Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties,” the world’s richest person tweeted to his 114mn followers.”Therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the presidency is Democratic.”Adding to tensions — and a reminder of Moscow’s murky role throughout Trump-era US politics — Kremlin-connected oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin boasted that Russia was trying to tilt the outcome. “We interfered, we are interfering and we will interfere...carefully, precisely, surgically and the way we do it, the way we can,” said Prigozhin, a pivotal figure in the Ukraine invasion where his Wagner military contractor group is on the front lines.Biden, who has framed his closing argument as a warning that American democracy is on the line, ended days of frantic campaigning for Democratic candidates with a rally yesterday evening near Baltimore.Trump — using the midterms to repeatedly tease a possible 2024 White House run, even as he faces criminal probes over taking secret documents and trying to overturn the 2020 election — held a rally in Ohio.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.Kevin McCarthy, who would likely become speaker of the House — placing him second in line to the president — also refused to rule out impeachment proceedings.“We will never use impeachment for political purposes,” McCarthy told CNN.”That doesn’t mean if something rises to the occasion, it would not be used at any other time.” One key question remained whether the US senate would also flip, leaving Biden as little more than a lame duck. With Congress out of Democrats’ hands, Biden would see his legislative agenda collapse.That would raise questions over everything from climate crisis policies, which the president will be laying out at the COP27 conference in Egypt this week, to Ukraine, where Republicans are reluctant to maintain the current rate of US financial and military support.While insisting he supports Ukraine’s struggle, McCarthy told CNN there could be no “blank check” — a nod to the isolationist, far-right Trump wing of his party and a signal likely sending shivers through Kyiv.Just how bad today goes will also likely determine whether Biden, who turns 80 this month and is the oldest president ever, will seek a second term or step aside, plunging his party into fresh uncertainty.Up for grabs are all 435 House seats, a third of the 100 Senate seats, and a slew of state-level posts.Popular former president Barack Obama and other Democratic stars have been racing from campaign to campaign in hopes of seeing off the predicted Republican “red wave.”But the political landscape has been tilting away from Democrats since the summer, as Republican messaging about high inflation, crime and illegal immigration overwhelmed the incumbents.“This is going to be a wake-up call to President Biden,” was the bullish weekend prediction of Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s Republican governor and a rising star being touted as a possible party alternative to Trump in 2024.