On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Senior Biden Adviser for Public Engagement Keisha Lance Bottoms stated that she “can’t speak to” whether it was wrong for Democrats to support candidates in Republican primaries that the White House says are a threat to democracy.
Host Brianna Keilar asked, “[T]here are election-denying Republicans — we’re getting a clearer picture now through polls — who could very well win, and these are election-denying Republicans, some of whom Democrats actually helped in the primary against moderate Republicans hoping that they’d be easier to beat in the general election. How is the President giving a speech about democracy tonight when his own party propped up candidates that are anti-democracy?”
Bottoms responded, “Well, what the President will remind us is that democracy is fragile. We know that there’s been an attack on democracy. We saw it in real-time, January 6. Congressman John Lewis was my Congressman. And he reminded us that the right to vote is almost sacred. He also said that he was concerned he would wake up one day and our democracy would be gone. So, what we need in this country is for people to go out and be able to vote in free and fair elections without fear of intimidation, making sure that their votes are accurately counted. And that’s the bedrock of our democracy, and that’s what the President will remind us of, amongst other things, this evening.”
Keilar followed up, “But some people in your own party supported anti-democracy Republicans. Was that a mistake for them to do?”
Bottoms answered, “I can’t speak to that. But what I can say is that the President has been very clear, he ran on a platform of restoring the soul of this nation, and at the end of the day, each person who is registered to vote has the right to vote for their candidate. You win some and you lose some. I have kids and I supported them in Little League games. At the end of the game, they go and they shake hands and they get up and they try again another day, if candidates across the country would only do the same thing. We saw the attack on our democracy. We saw the attack on law enforcement on January 6. And we know of the news of the horrific attack on the speaker of the house’s husband just this past week. So, people across this country have the right to vote for whomever they choose to vote for, but that’s what democracy is all about and that’s what our President will remind us of this evening.”
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