{"id":1232171,"date":"2022-01-22T18:39:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T23:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1232171"},"modified":"2022-01-22T18:39:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T23:39:37","slug":"bidens-election-integrity-reply-puts-wh-in-cleanup-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bidens-election-integrity-reply-puts-wh-in-cleanup-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s Election Integrity Reply Puts WH In Cleanup Mode"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbidens-election-integrity-reply-puts-wh-in-cleanup-mode%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1232171&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Less than 24 hours after President Biden told RealClearPolitics \u2013 and a national TV audience \u2013 he was not prepared to say that the coming midterm elections would be legitimate, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was saying the exact opposite Thursday during television interviews, on Twitter and twice to reporters in the briefing room.<\/p>\n<p>The clarification may have come too late. Before Psaki could do damage control, both Vice President Kamala Harris and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, the Democrat perhaps most responsible for making Biden president, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2022\/01\/20\/democratic_whip_clyburn_im_absolutely_concerned.html\">seemed to amplify<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2022\/01\/20\/savannah_guthrie_to_vp_kamala_harris_astonishing_to_hear_president_biden_say_election_may_not_be_legitimate.html\">a message that the White House would have to disavow<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PressSec\/status\/1484166808894640131?s=20\">hours later.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It all started with a routine press conference question Wednesday but ended with an answer that crowded out some of the positive headlines the administration had hoped to earn on the one-year anniversary of Biden\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n<p>If his preferred election reforms didn\u2019t become law, asked Allison Harris of NewsNation, would the midterms be fair and legitimate? Biden hedged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, it all depends on whether or not we\u2019re able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2022\/01\/19\/remarks-by-president-biden-in-press-conference-6\/\">president said<\/a>, referring to Republican-controlled state legislatures engaged in their own changes to voting laws and implying that the legitimacy of those elections remains in question.<\/p>\n<p>When Biden later called on RCP, the president was asked to clarify that response. Given the state-level efforts his administration believes restrict voter access, did he believe that the next election \u201cwould in any way be illegitimate\u201d? He didn\u2019t hesitate this time. \u201cOh, yeah,\u201d Biden replied, \u201cI think it easily could be illegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And then the president turned his attention to the last electoral contest. \u201cImagine if, in fact, Trump had succeeded in convincing Pence to not count the votes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>RCP interrupted to clarify: \u201cIn regard to 2022, sir \u2013 the midterm elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, 2022,\u201d he replied, before returning to finish his last thought about 2020. \u201cI mean, imagine if those attempts to say that the count was not legit. \u2018You have to recount it and we\u2019re not going to count \u2014 we\u2019re going to discard the following votes.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not going to say it\u2019s 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,\u201d he continued, tying passage of his preferred federal voting rights legislation to the legitimacy of the midterms.<\/p>\n<p>This was a challenge, Biden said, his party would rise up to meet even if Senate Democrats could not get his preferred election bills into law. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to see me, and I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to see the Democratic Party, give up on coming back and assuming that the attempt [to pass those measures] fails today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hours later, a bipartisan majority consisting of all Republicans and Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema doomed that congressional effort. And while the president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2022\/01\/19\/statement-of-president-joe-biden-on-the-senate-vote-on-voting-rights\/\">would say in a statement<\/a> that he was \u201cprofoundly disappointed that the United States Senate has failed to stand up for our democracy,\u201d the administration did not seek to clarify the president\u2019s legitimacy comments until the next morning.<\/p>\n<p>Capitol Hill woke up to a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PressSec\/status\/1484166808894640131\">statement<\/a> from the White House press secretary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLets be clear: @potus 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,\u201d Psaki tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe 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\u2019re fighting to protect it,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Harris had already finished an interview with the CBS morning show before Psaki pressed \u201csend.\u201d Gayle King asked the vice president <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2022\/01\/20\/kamala_harris_people_in_elected_offices_in_states_are_making_it_more_difficult_to_vote.html\">about next steps<\/a> now that the voting legislation had failed in the Senate. Harris said that the risk of \u201cattacks on our democracy\u201d remained ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you boil it down to it, one of the specific issues is that folks are making it \u2013 people in elected offices and states are making it more difficult for their citizens to vote,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<p>Clyburn expressed similar concern, addressing the legitimacy question explicitly on CNN. \u201cAre you concerned that without these voting rights bills the election results won\u2019t be legitimate?\u201d asked anchor Kasie Hunt. Clyburn, a confidant of the president, replied, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2022\/01\/20\/democratic_whip_clyburn_im_absolutely_concerned.html\">\u201cI\u2019m absolutely concerned about that.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When Psaki made her Fox News debut Thursday, the press secretary heralded Biden\u2019s year-one accomplishments, joked about the Cincinnati Bengals\u2019 playoff chances, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/video\/2022\/01\/20\/jen_psaki_on_voting_rights_debate_everyone_should_have_access_to_mail-in_voting.html\">denied that the president was questioning<\/a> if the United States would have free and fair elections come November.<\/p>\n<p>Psaki insisted that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Less than 24 hours after President Biden told RealClearPolitics \u2013 and a national TV audience \u2013 he was not prepared to say that the coming midterm elections would be legitimate, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was saying the exact opposite Thursday during television interviews, on Twitter and twice to reporters in the briefing room. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1232171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}