Biden Won’t Defend Legitimacy of Upcoming Elections

When President Biden was asked at his press conference asked about the possibility of fraud, he said: “I’m not saying it’s going to be legit… The prospect of an illegitimate election is in direct proportion to us being able to get these reforms passed.”

Philip Bump: “Again, this is a remarkable break from the main line of rhetoric over the past two years. With good reason, there’s been a broad insistence that the most recent election wasn’t tainted by shenanigans. Here, Biden was suggesting that such a thing was possible — within the constraints of changed state laws and processes and, presumably, the context of a concerted effort to install officials sympathetic to Trump’s false claims at the local and state level of election monitoring…”

“So now what? Are we heading into a federal election with the president’s stated position that the results should be eyed skeptically? This is not unfamiliar territory, certainly, but not a situation that many Americans are eager to repeat.”