political violence. with philadelphia s independence hall as a backdrop and flanked by two marines he frames the critical midterm elections as a choice between democracy and extremism. this morning the white house is pushing back on criticism that the president s speech was political. officials saying it was, quote, entirely about democracy. let s go straight to the white house, cnn s jeremy diamond is there. how do they feel about how it went, jeremy? reporter: john, biden s message last night was unmistakable democracy is under assault and president trump and his allies are the ones assaulting it. last night s rare prime time address wasn t just a warning about donald trump and trumpism, it was also a very clear call to action, call to action for voters to act and make their voices heard in the midterm elections. equality and democracy are under assault. we do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise. reporter: president biden issuing an urgent call to americans an