Vice President Kamala Harris is not commenting on whether President Joe Biden is “really concerned” that the upcoming midterm elections will be illegitimate.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Biden’s suggested the 2022 elections “could easily be illegitimate” if the Senate did not pass voting rights legislation.
Hours later, Harris was asked if results could be viewed as legitimate, she responded, “Let’s get these bills passed before we have that conversation.”
Asked VP Kamala Harris about Biden’s remark — if she believes the elections would be viewed as “illegitimate” if the Dems’ voting bills don’t pass Congress. “Let’s get these bills passed before we have that conversation,” she said
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 20, 2022
And during an interview on NBC’s “Today” on Thursday morning, host Savannah Guthrie said, “[Biden] openly cast doubt on whether the 2022 midterm elections would be legitimate. He said ‘it all depends.’ Which is astonishing to hear a president question whether our elections will be legitimate.”
She asked, “Is he really concerned that we may not have fair and free elections?”
“The president has been consistent on this issue. And the issue at hand…is that there are two bills the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act that have been the solution that has been offered to address the fact that around our country states have put in place laws that are purposefully making it more difficult for the American people to vote,” Harris began.
Guthrie interjected that the two bills failed to pass the Senate. She asked, “Does he think, now that these bills haven’t been passed, that the 2022 midterms won’t be legitimate, or fair, or free?”
“Let’s not conflate issues,” Harris said, adding, “What we are looking at, and the topic of so much debate last night, was that we as America cannot afford to allow this blatant erosion of our democracy. And in particular, the right of all Americans who are eligible to vote to have access to the ballot unfettered. That is the topic of the conversation. And let’s not be distracted by the political gamesmanship.”
Watch the video below:
Is President Biden really concerned that we may not have free and fair elections? –@SavannahGuthrie to @VP pic.twitter.com/pQmv6MLVb5
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 20, 2022
On Wednesday, Biden was asked if he believes the 2022 elections would be legitimate if Senate Demorats did not pass voting rights legislation.
“I think it could easily be illegitimate. Imagine, imagine if, in fact, Trump had succeeded in convincing Mike Pence to not count the vote,” he said. “I mean imagine if those attempts to say that the count was not legit. You have to recount it, and we’re not going to count, we’re going to discard the following votes.”
He added, “I mean, sure, but I’m not saying it is going to be legit. The increase and the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these reforms passed.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tried to clean up Biden’s comments on Thursday morning, tweeting, “Lets [sic] be clear: [Biden] was not casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 election. He was making the opposite point: In 2020, a record number of voters turned out in the face of a pandemic, and election officials made sure they could vote and have those votes counted.”
He was explaining that the results would be illegitimate if states do what the former president asked them to do after the 2020 election: toss out ballots and overturn results after the fact. The Big Lie is putting our democracy at risk. We’re fighting to protect it.
— Karine Jean-Pierre Archived (@PressSec46) January 20, 2022
“He was explaining that the results would be illegitimate if states do what the former president asked them to do after the 2020 election: toss out ballots and overturn results after the fact. The Big Lie is putting our democracy at risk. We’re fighting to protect it,” she added.
