White House Quickly Walks Back What Biden Said About Elections in Venezuela

Leah Barkoukis | August 16, 2024 1:30 PM

The White House quickly walked back President Biden’s comment saying he supports Venezuela holding new elections.

“The president was speaking to the absurdity of Maduro and his representatives not coming clean about the July 28 elections,” the National Security Council said in a statement, according to Politico. “It is abundantly clear to the majority of the Venezuelan people, the United States and a growing number of countries that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes on July 28.”

When a reporter asked if he thought Venezuela should hold another election, Biden replied, “I do.”

The United States wants “the will of the Venezuelan people to be respected and for discussions to begin on a transition back to democratic norms,” the NSC statement added.

Maduro & his representatives must come clean about Venezuela's July 28 elections. It is abundantly clear that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes. We call for the will of the people to be respected & for discussions to begin on a transition back to democratic norms.
— Sean Savett (@NSC_Spox) August 15, 2024

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro called on Caracas today to hold new elections that are fair and consistent with international standards. Both countries are regional interlocutors the administration has seen as critical in the effort to get Maduro to accept results that show he did not win the election.
Other countries in the region have gone further. Argentina has called González Venezuela’s president-elect and urged Maduro to step aside. The U.S. has not called González the outright winner nor referred to him as president-elect.
But the calls for new elections are the most dramatic show of regional force from the U.S. and partners in the region, as they seek to resolve a weeks-long stalemate in the South American country between the country’s socialist ruling party and an energized opposition movement.
The Venezuelan government proclaimed Maduro as the winner of the country’s July 28 elections the next day, publishing national-level results that claimed that Maduro eked out a narrow victory over González. But the Venezuelan opposition dismissed those results, arguing that precinct-level results, known as “actas,” that they collected from most of the country’s polling places showed that González had defeated Maduro by a two-to-one margin.
The opposition published their own version of the results online, which outlets including The Washington Post have verified are accurate. (Politico)