‘The Clean Up Continues’: Jen Psaki Gets Dragged for Claiming Biden Wasn’t Trying to Delegitimize 2022 Midterms
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is trying to amend Joe Biden’s statements about the 2022 midterms, though news watchers are not pleased with her spin on the president’s behalf.
Biden raised eyebrows in his latest news conference by refusing to give a straight answer on whether he would recognize the midterm election results as “legitimate.” His comments came hours before the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act failed in the Senate after numerous attempts by the president and his allies to advance election reform.
Political observers were alarmed by Biden’s comments, so Psaki got on Twitter the next day to insist that the president was not trying to cast doubt on the midterms’ integrity in advance.
“Lets be clear: President Biden 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,” Psaki tweeted. “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.”
Psaki followed her tweets with an appearance on Fox News, where she doubled down in saying that Biden’s point was to counteract Donald Trump’s attempts to delegitimize elections. Her statements come after she already put out one press release to address Biden’s comments about the possibility of a “minor incursion” into Ukraine while tensions are high over Russia’s military escalation in Eastern Europe.
Altogether, the Twitterverse responded to Psaki by reminding her of what Biden said, and by offering their disapproval for how often she and her colleagues have to run cover for Biden when he misspeaks.
Joe Biden’s caregiver shows up once again to clean up after he craps the bed https://t.co/76zmlb359o
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 20, 2022
and the clean-up continues https://t.co/qqs0fhIbiS
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 20, 2022
Thread. White House can deny it, but Biden clearly refused to say 2022 results would be legitimate if Congress does not pass Democrats’ voting rules bill. ‘I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit.’ See ‘Biden: Stop the steal!’ https://t.co/unzOuG2hSZ https://t.co/EquGintK1p
— Byron York (@ByronYork) January 20, 2022
more WH clean-up: https://t.co/bRoYyIw2AX
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 20, 2022
This is the textbook definition of gaslighting. Trying to convince people they didn’t hear or see what the president plainly said. https://t.co/0mbOMrAgcf
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) January 20, 2022
Another cleanup of Biden’s press conference statements from Psaki: https://t.co/UY7TOeAkV4
— Anders Hagstrom (@Hagstrom_Anders) January 20, 2022
Clean up on Aisle D(emocracy)@PressSec seeks to clarify Biden’s comments suggesting 2022 elections could be illegitimate
Psaki says Biden wasn’t casting doubt, but saying reults could be illegitimate if states “toss out ballots and overturn results after the fact” https://t.co/cOH28pYpsm— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) January 20, 2022
You can either believe what Biden said on national television yesterday or what @PressSec is now telling you he actually said.
Words matter and Biden did not say what Jen is claiming. https://t.co/C8qetxCb75
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) January 20, 2022
Agree that’s almost certainly what he meant. The problem is that it’s not what he said. https://t.co/Nx0yCEc5yL
— Sarah Isgur (@whignewtons) January 20, 2022
Biden at presser: “I’m not saying it’s not going to be legit, it’s the increase in the prospect of being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these -these reforms passed.” https://t.co/29Dv9uioKB
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) January 20, 2022
