White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond claimed that the midterm elections could be illegitimate, saying in a recent interview that election laws in GOP-led states would allow "people to subvert" the 2022 election results.
Richmond was asked in an interview with POLITICO, published Friday, about comments President Joe Biden made during his press conference Wednesday in which the president implied the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections may not be legitimate without Democrats' federal election bills signed into law.
The White House adviser said that Biden was suggesting that some GOP election laws could allow the "will of voters" to be ignored. Richmond also noted that the president has never questioned the results of his previous presidential election losses.
"I think what the president was doing was raising the issue and highlighting that a lot of these bills that are being passed around the country by Republican legislatures on party-line votes could pose a problem in the 2022 election, especially if you look at some of the laws that would allow people to subvert the election or ignore the will of voters," Richmond said.
"I think that in his way, he was highlighting the fact that there are threats out there, and I think that those threats are real," he continued. "He ran for president three times. He lost twice. He didn't challenge the results of elections. We understand that if you lose an election, you lost a contest of ideas and go get some better ones, go work harder."
A reporter asked Biden during his press conference Wednesday if he believes the November elections will be legitimate if Democrats fail to pass their election legislation.
"Well, all depends on whether or not we’re able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election," Biden said, likely referring to Republican efforts to pass election integrity bills. "And it’s one thing, look, maybe I’m just being too much of an optimist."
When pressed on the issue by another reporter, Biden said "It easily could be illegitimate. Imagine if, in fact, Trump had succeeded in convincing Pence to not count the votes."
The Senate voted earlier this week not to nix the filibuster to pass voting legislation, meaning the bills will not be passed.