US president Joe Biden has said he is prepared to compromise with his Republican opponents but will not accept any reversal of climate change measures or cuts to social safety net programmes.
Mr Biden was speaking on Wednesday night in the wake of US midterm elections in which Democratic Party candidates outperformed expectations and an anticipated “red wave” of Republican victories failed to materialise.
The Republicans were on track, however, to win a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, albeit much smaller than predicted, while the battle for control of the Senate remained in the balance. Having to negotiate with a Republican-controlled House for the remaining two years of his term would complicate Mr Biden’s efforts to see through his agenda.
At a press conference in Washington, DC, he said he would veto any national ban on abortion introduced by Republicans when the new US Congress commences in January. Mr Biden said it was his intention to run again for the White House but that it was a family decision and he hoped to announce his plans early next year.
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The US president will have been boosted by the stronger-than-expected performances of Democratic candidates across the country in elections for the House of Representatives, Senate and state governorships.
But the elections may prove a setback to former president Donald Trump as he contemplates another run for the White House in 2024. Many of the Republican candidates he endorsed were defeated, while a potential rival for the Republican Party nomination for the presidency, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, had a resounding win in his home state.
Mr Biden said that the elections were “a good day for democracy”. Regardless of the final results, he was prepared to work with his Republican opponents, and the American people had made clear that they expected Republicans to work with him as well.
While Republicans are expected to take control of the US House of Representatives with a narrow majority, Mr Biden said it was possible that Democrats could retain control of the House, but that “it will be very close”.
The fate of the US Senate is on a knife edge, with results awaited in Arizona and Nevada. In Georgia, a run-off contest is to take place between the Democrat and Republican candidates early next month after neither of them reached a 50 per cent threshold required by law.
Mr Biden said he wanted to see a continuation of the bipartisan policy of supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression, and when he returned from the forthcoming G20 meeting of world leaders in Indonesia he would invite the leadership of both political parties to the White House to see how they could work together to advance the economic and national security priorities of the United States.
