Yesterday in his press conference Biden suggested that the 2022 elections wouldn’t be legitimate if Democrats can’t get their election bill passed in the Senate.
Today, Jen Psaki was asked about it on Fox News and tried to claim he didn’t say that:
.@DanaPerino: "I'm curious if you'll continue to say the 2022 elections will be illegitimate?"
Psaki: "First I talked to the president a lot about this & he absolutely is not predicting that the 2022 elections would be illegitimate." pic.twitter.com/8qsCkisPW1
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 20, 2022
Even before this interview, Psaki had jumped on Twitter to clarify what Biden said:
Lets 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.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) January 20, 2022
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. The Big Lie is putting our democracy at risk. We’re fighting to protect it.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) January 20, 2022
That’s not true. Biden did predict the 2022 elections would be illegitimate and you can read the full exchange below, right from the White House website:
QUESTIONER: Thank you, sir. 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. You said that it depends. Do you — do you think that they would in any way be illegitimate?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yeah, I think it easily could be — be illegitimate.
Imagine — imagine if, in fact, Trump has succeeded in convincing Pence to not count the votes.
QUESTIONER: Well, I —
THE PRESIDENT: Imagine if —
Go on.
QUESTIONER: In regard to 2022, sir — the midterm elections.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, 2022. I mean, imagine if those attempts to say that the count was not legit. “You have to recount it and we’re not going to count — we’re going to discard the following votes.”
I mean, sure, but — I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit. It’s — the increase and the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these — these reforms passed.
But I don’t think you’re going to see — you’re not going to see me and I don’t think you’re going to see the Democratic Party give up on — coming back and assuming that the attempt fails today.
First of all, reading this, Biden sounds very confused. Shocker, I know. But he did say exactly what everyone heard him say, calling the midterms illegitimate if they don’t get their horrible election bill passed. I know that Biden is a mumble mouth, but this is pretty clear. No matter how many times Psaki circles back, she can’t change what he said.