President Joe Biden’s incoming press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has claimed Republican-crafted voting laws are based on “repeatedly disproven lies” about widespread fraud.
However, Jean-Pierre shared allegations that Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election was stolen from Democrat Stacey Abrams as recently as two years ago.
In an April 2020 tweet from her personal account, Jean-Pierre shared an article about Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), stating that he did not know asymptomatic individuals can spread COVID-19.
“Reminder: Brian Kemp stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and Stacey Abrams,” she wrote.
Reminder: Brian Kemp stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and Stacey Abrams.https://t.co/ZIKGTd6U1v
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre) April 2, 2020
In 2018, after losing the gubernatorial election, Abrams claimed that voter suppression played a role in the outcome.
“I will not concede, because the erosion of our democracy is not right,” she told her supporters.
However, she added, “I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial elections.”
According to USA Today, “While Abrams has maintained the 2018 gubernatorial election was unfair and tainted by voter suppression, there’s no empirical evidence that now-Gov. Kemp stole that election from her.”
“She did register over 800,000 new voters in time for the 2020 election, with help from other activists. We rate the claim PARTLY FALSE, because some of it is not supported by our research,” it added.
Former President Donald Trump claimed that the 2020 election was stolen.
However, several recounts and legal challenges failed to find evidence of widespread fraud or alter the outcome of the election.
Last year, 19 Republican-led states passed laws that implemented new restrictions on voting measures such as implementing voter I.D. requirements or limiting the time to request mail-in ballots.
And as Texas Republicans state lawmakers tried to pass a controversial voting law last summer, Jean-Pierre criticized the move.
“The Texas legislation is part of a concerted attack on our democracy being advanced in state houses across the country on the basis of the same repeatedly disproven lies that led to the assault on our nation’s Capitol on January 6th,” she said during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One in July.
Biden announced on Thursday that Jean-Pierre will be the new White House press secretary, as IJR reported.
She will be the first Black woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to serve in that position.
