Harris Dodges on Whether Biden Cast Doubt on Election Legitimacy

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday dodged a question from Today Show host Savannah Guthrie on whether President Biden is “really concerned” that the midterm elections may not be legitimate.

When a reporter asked Biden if he would view the results of the 2022 midterms as “legitimate” if Democrats’ voting legislation failed in the Senate, Biden responded “it all depends,” at a press conference on Wednesday evening.

“The increase in the prospect of being illegitimate is in proportion to not being able to get these reforms passed,” Biden said.

The voting legislation failed in the Senate hours after Biden’s press conference after Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin refused to endorse a filibuster carve out to pass the bill without GOP support.

It is “astonishing to hear a president question whether our elections will be legitimate. We’ve heard it before, but not from this president,” Guthrie told Harris during an interview on Thursday morning, apparently in reference to former president Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. “Is he really concerned that we may not have fair and free elections?”

Harris insisted that Biden “has been consistent on this issue,” and claimed that the “issue at hand” is a group of state laws that allegedly make it harder for Americans to vote. Harris said the two voting bills Democrats tried to pass in the Senate would have ensured voting opportunities for Americans.

Guthrie then interjected, “but the specific question, if you don’t mind: does [Biden] think, now that these bills haven’t been passed, that the ’22 midterms won’t be legitimate or fair?”

“Let’s not conflate issues,” Harris responded. “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.”

Shortly after Harris’s interview, White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter that Biden was not questioning the legitimacy of the elections.

“Lets [sic] be clear: [Biden] was not casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 election,” Psaki wrote. “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.”