In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired on Sunday, Vice President Harris highlighted alarm over threats to voting rights and democracy and stressed the significance of turning out the vote for the midterm elections.
She talked on voting rights and added, “Everything is on the line in these elections in just less than two months.”
Harris emphasized that the issue is a top priority for the Biden administration and that the president would “not allow the filibuster stand in the way” of enacting laws that make voting simpler.
They are adopting rules that make it harder for people to vote because of what is going on in our nation, added Harris.
Harris cited President Biden’s support for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Both proposals have been adopted by the House, but Republican filibusters in the Senate have prevented their passage.
According to the vice president, “you nearly saw, almost immediately,” when Biden was elected in 2020, “so-called extreme leaders throughout the country trying to push legislation making it harder for people to vote.”
She mentioned the unprecedented voter participation that year and stated, “I believe that terrified some individuals that the American people were voting in such great numbers.”
Harris expressed worry over how the nation is managing “attacks from within” and spoke about election deniers running for secretary of state across the nation as well as certain politicians’ failure to denounce the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Harris responded that the two are “different” when host Chuck Todd questioned whether the internal challenges to American democracy now are “equivalent to or bigger than what we faced after 9/11.”
Each is detrimental and hazardous, but they are distinct, according to Harris.
She said, “I would that we would approach it… as Americans, instead than through some party lens, when I think about what we have been witnessing in terms of the attacks from inside.
Threats to democracy from within the United States, according to Harris, harm ties with other countries by showing that America is not “valuing what they talk about.”
“I’m quite worried about that. Because there are so many global concerns, Harris added, “we as Americans need at least continue to think about what is right, what is good, what should be fought for, what should be human values, and definitely what should be the goals of democracies.
And I believe that as a result of everything we’ve gone through, people are beginning to question our dedication to those ideas.
Have you considered how you could manage a certification that did not represent the outcome of the popular vote in the state? Todd also questioned the vice president on how she may handle disagreements over the results of the 2024 presidential election.
Harris said, “I haven’t come to that stage yet.
“I have to believe that the United States Congress and all the people who have sworn to defend our democracy will ensure and will stand up against anyone who tries to destroy or circumvent the rules, practices, and procedures that we’ve had in place that have allowed a peaceful transfer of power since the inception of our nation,” she said.
Todd brought up the prospect of the former president Trump being prosecuted given the several investigations he is now under, to which Harris said that she “wouldn’t dare tell the Department of Justice what to do.”
To Todd’s assertion that it would be “extremely divisive for the country to prosecute a former president,” Harris appeared to disagree.
She said that in instances “when there has been a clamor for justice, and justice has been served,” “the inconceivable has happened” before in American history.
She said, “And I think that might always be the case in our society, that people are going to demand justice, and they do so rightfully.”
