Vice President Kamala Harris argued Sunday that baseless claims about the integrity of the 2020 election could undermine whether the United States is viewed as a “role model” for democracy, marking the latest Biden Administration official in recent weeks to sharply criticize those who have falsely insisted the last presidential election was rigged.
The fact that several Republicans running in state-level races for secretary of state—whom Harris called the “keepers of the integrity of the voting system”—have denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election allows people worldwide to “call into question” U.S. commitment to democracy, Harris said in an interview with NBC’s Meet The Press.
That’s a “shame,” she said, arguing the U.S. in the past has had the “privilege” of “holding our head up as a defender and an example of a great democracy.”
But election deniers and those who don’t denounce the January 6 Capitol riot are “a threat” to America’s perceptions abroad, Harris said, because those beliefs “[cause]
people to question … is America still valuing what they talk about?”