Vice President Kamala Harris doubled down on President Joe Biden’s refusal to say the 2022 midterms would be fair during a Thursday morning interview on "TODAY."
During his first news conference since March, Biden refused to say the country’s upcoming elections would be free and fair or that the results would be legitimate, unless Democrats’ voting reforms were passed.
“I just wanted to clarify: A moment ago, you were asked whether or not you believed that we would have free and fair elections in 2022 if some of these state legislatures reformed their voting protocols,” a reporter said. “You said that it depends. Do you ... think that they would in any way be illegitimate?”
I’m not saying it’s going to be legit,” Biden responded. “The increase in the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these reforms passed.
Vice President Harris echoed that sentiment during a Thursday morning interview on "TODAY"with Savannah Guthrie. When Guthrie asked about Biden's comments, Harris pointed to the fact Democrats' voting rights legislation didn't garner enough support to pass Congress. She also referenced GOP-backed state election reforms, which she called a “blatant erosion of our democracy.”
“The [Democrats'] bills were debated, and they didn't pass," Guthrie pointed out, before clarifying her question for Harris one more time. “But the specific question, if you don’t mind, does he think now that these bills haven’t been passed that the ’22 midterms won’t be legitimate, or fair, or free?” Harris was asked.
Let’s not conflate issues, so 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,” the vice president responded.
Biden's critics pounced immediately after he made his comments about the midterms Wednesday evening. Members of the media also took issue with Biden’s refusal to declare the midterms would be fair.
“And quite strikingly, the president said that the upcoming midterm elections might not be legitimate if the election reform bills before the Senate are not passed,” said CNN anchor Jake Tapper. “President Biden just said, with Donald Trump’s history when it comes to the big lie on the elections, but he refused to say that the election results this midterm — in these midterms in November would be legitimate. He refused it."
It is striking to hear an American president not named Donald Trump raise questions about the legitimacy and sanctity of our democracy,” CNN’s John King remarked.
“Well, particularly the first part, Anderson, what he said, was — actually the entire thing, but the first part was probably the most jarring to hear a President of the United States who is not Donald Trump, even suggest ahead of time that an election isn’t legitimate,” said Dana Bash, also a CNN anchor.
“Isn’t this the exact same thing they’ve ripped Trump for about 2020 for an entire year?!" Clay Travis, the founder of Outkick, asked on Twitter.
The White House attempted to clarify Biden's comments in a statement Thursday morning.
“Lets be clear: @potus was not casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 election,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Twitter Thursday. “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,” Psaki continued in a separate tweet. “The Big Lie is putting our democracy at risk. We’re fighting to protect it.”