The president was speaking at a holiday celebration for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) at the Hotel Washington in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday when he questioned what the GOP represents.
Republicans are hoping to take back the House of Representatives and the Senate in 2022, which would allow them to arrest Biden’s legislative agenda and hold up or reject his nominees.
Biden was speaking about voting rights legislation and said that “each and every time, Senate Republicans have blocked the way.”
The Senate is currently divided between 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats.
The president also highlighted other issues including gun violence, immigration and criminal justice reform.
“And as we fight to make progress on all of them, I hope you remember what got us to the White House in the first place,” Biden said.
“In 2020, we won as a unified Democratic Party—more unified than ever. Now we look at 2022. I want to tell my Republican friends: Get ready, pal. You’re going in for a problem,” he said.
Biden thanked the DNC and its chair, Jaime Harrison, saying it had been “a critical partner in all of our work this year.”
“As Democrats, we know what we’re for, while Republicans don’t seem to be for anything. Name me something they are for. They’re against everything,” the president said.
“I just mentioned that we’d reduce the cost for American families,” Biden went on. “We have to keep making the case. And if we do, I believe we’re going to win. Let me say this again for the press: We’re going to win in 2022. I really mean it.”
The president said that Democrats had to explain to Americans “what have we done for them.”
“That’s where the DNC comes in,” Biden said. “That’s for all of you who support the DNC, for all of you who allow to give them the wherewithal to go out and make the case, the advertisements, and all the things we’re doing. We have to let people know what we’ve done.”
The president’s party generally performs poorly in midterm elections and that is currently expected to be the case in 2022. Poll tracker FiveThirtyEight’s estimated generic congressional ballot showed Republicans slightly ahead of Democrats as of December 14, with 43 percent to Democrats’ 42.1 percent.
