Author and Hollywood self-help guru Marianne Williamson suspended her presidential campaign on Friday after months on the campaign trail, experiencing breakout debate performances in the summer and making headlines for the quirky style that became a hallmark of her campaign.
Williamson, who jumped into the presidential race in January 2019, made headlines on the campaign trail for her deviation from typical political-speak, constantly harping on the importance of harnessing love to combat what she described as President Trump’s “dark psychic force.”
Her breakout performances in the early debates inspired Republicans to donate to her campaign as an effort to keep her on the debate stage, to no avail. Williamson failed to make any recent debates, as the Democratic National Committee (DNC) continually intensified the polling and donor requirements.
Nonetheless, the Democrat topped the Drudge Report’s instant straw poll following the debate in Detroit, Michigan, early in the race. During that same debate, Williamson turned “dark psychic force” into a household term.
Here are some of her most notable moments:
1. Williamson proclaimed that Trump could only be defeated with love.
“This man has reached into the psyche of the American people and he has harnessed fear for political purposes. So, Mr. President, if you’re listening, I want you to hear me, please. You have harnessed fear for political purposes, and only love can cast that out,” she said during the June debate.
“So I, sir, I have a feeling you know what you’re doing. I’m going to harness love for political purposes; I will meet you on that field and, sir, love will win,” she added:
2. Williamson accused Trump of bringing about a “dark psychic force” of “collectivized hatred” in the country.
“If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this President is bringing up in this country,” she said during the July 30 debate. “Democrats are going to see some very dark days”:
3. Williamson doubled down on her assertion, telling Breitbart News that she will defeat Trump’s “dark psychic force” with “love.”
Matt Perdie / Breitbart NewsBreitbart News’s Matt Perdie: How are you going to beat Trump’s “dark psychic force”?
Williamson: With love. Let me tell you something. One light casts out darkness, and only love casts out hatred. He has collectivized hatred. You know, Jared Kushner said to his father-in-law, before they ran, he said, “There are a lot of angry people out there. We can harness all that and make you president.” When I read that, I thought to myself, there’s so much dignity out there, and decency, and goodness in people. We can harness all that and change the world.
Perdie: What’s the best way to utilize the power of love?
Williamson: Forgive someone.
4. Williamson cited her daughter’s “five gay godfathers” as her most “significant relationship” with the LGBT community.
“Well, my daughter has five gay godfathers,” she told the Washington Blade over the summer. “My best friend was — for many years — he died a couple of years ago, three years ago, four years ago, was a gay man.”
“So my relationships with gay individuals have been actually very deep,” she added.
5. Williamson called out fellow Democrat candidates for their past of taking donations from big corporate donors.
She said during CNN’s debate in July:
For politicians, including my fellow candidates who themselves have taken tens of thousands and, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars from these same corporate donors, to think that they now have the moral authority to say, “We’re going to take them on,” I don’t think the Democratic Party should be surprised that so many Americans believe “yada, yada, yada.”
6. Williamson called Trump’s July 4 celebration “heartbreaking & repugnant.”
7. Williamson rebuked moderate Democrats on the debate stage for stopping short of embracing the idea of “free college.”
“And I’ve heard some people here tonight — I almost wonder why you’re Democrats,” she said during July’s debate. “You seem to think there’s something wrong about using the instruments of government to help people.”
“That is what government should do. It should — all policies should help people thrive. That is how we will have peace, and that is how we will have prosperity,” she added:
8. Williamson spoke in favor of reparations, calling anything less than $100 billion an “insult.”
“If you did the math today it would be trillions of dollars, and I believe that anything less than $100 billion is an insult,” Williamson told CNN’s Don Lemon during July’s debate.
“I believe the $200-$500 billion is politically feasible today because so many Americans realize there is an injustice that continues to form a toxicity beneath the surface that only an emotional reparations will heal,” she continued:
9. Williamson refused to commit to choosing a minority as a running mate.
“I’m not into that; I’m into consciousness,” she stated in July.
10. Williamson claimed “an ancient strain of misogyny” was at work to prevent her from participating in more debates.
“There’s [a] well-strategized effort to smear me,” Williamson told the Daily Mail in August.
“It’s very frustrating because I like to think on the left we don’t do things like that,” Williamson continued. “So it’s been a bit of a wake-up call.”
“But apparently there’s some very powerful forces that want to make sure I’m not in that third debate so I must be doing something right if they’ve worked so hard to create that,” she added.
11. Williamson revealed in a hot mic moment that conservatives are nicer to her than some liberals.
“What does it say that Fox News is nicer to me than the leftists are? What does it say that the conservatives are nicer to me?” Williamson asked in September.
“It’s such a bizarre world. I’m such a leftie; I’m a serious leftie. I understand why people on the right called them godless. I didn’t think the left was as mean as the right say they are,” she added:
12. Williamson told the New Yorker’s David Remnick in September that she was surprised by how mean Democrats could be.
“I know this sounds naive. I didn’t think the left was so mean. I didn’t think the left lied like this,” she said. “I thought the right did that. I thought we were better.”
13. Williamson blasted the Democrat establishment for “smearing women it finds inconvenient!”
“The Democratic establishment has got to stop smearing women it finds inconvenient!” she said in defense of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) in October.
“The character assassination of women who don’t toe the party line will backfire,” she added:
14. Williamson suggested that violent video games make the world hate America.
“The United States needs to recognize the ways that we have subtly and not-so-subtly glorified violence,” Williamson stated on her website.
“From violent video games to seemingly endless military adventures, each of us might ask ourselves, ‘What is our seeming resistance to peace?’” she asked.
15. Williamson asked the U.S. to ask itself “how many American deaths we’re responsible for” in reaction to the elimination of top Iranian terror chief Qasem Soleimani.
“Use truth to counter war fever. When govt says Solmeini was responsible for American deaths in Iraq, ask how many American deaths WE’RE responsible for,” she wrote in part:
Williamson maintained her unconventional tone in Friday’s statement announcing the suspension of her presidential bid, proclaiming that “love will prevail”:
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