PORTSMOUTH, NH – EXCLUSIVE: Democratic presidential nominee Marianne Williamson alleges that President Biden and the Democratic Party establishment are “mocking” her and “trying to suppress (her) vote” as she runs for the White House for a second consecutive time.
Williamson, a best-selling author and spiritual advisor who is the first Democrat with a national following to primarily challenge the president, emphasized in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital that she hopes to debate Biden, if he continues as expected and a 2024 reelection campaign.
But Williamson, referring to Biden officials and the Democratic National Committee, said: “I don’t think anyone is under any illusion that they intend in any way for the president to share the podium with me.”
While most Democratic Party leaders from both the establishment and progressive wings say they will support Biden if he pursues a second term, Williamson — who called for reparations and a Department of Peace as part of her failed long-running campaign for the Democratic Party Party of 2020 presidential nomination – has said the US is on the “wrong track” under Biden and that it was “time to move on” from the 80-year-old president.
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Democratic presidential nominee Marianne Williamson is greeted by New Hampshire State Senate President Jeb Bradley at the Statehouse in Concord, NH, on March 9, 2023 (New Hampshire State Senate)
On Saturday, she launched her 2024 campaign at an event at Union Station in the nation’s capital.
When asked Monday if the president was annoyed by the launch of Williamson’s campaign, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre appeared to mock the nominee, saying, “I don’t follow that. I mean, if “What is he called? A little globe here—a crystal ball, I could tell you. A magical eight-sphere or whatever. If I could feel her aura.”
During his first year in the White House, Biden told his staff that anyone caught disrespecting a colleague would be fired immediately. Williamson told Fox News Wednesday, “I wouldn’t say anyone should be fired because I’m not going to try to fire someone from their job. But I think the president would notice that hypocrisy and could say something respectful.”
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“I think it would be very appropriate for the president to say that he respects the constitution, that he respects people’s right to run for office. I would like to hear that from the president,” she added.
Opinion polls show Biden ahead of Williamson. When asked if she feels like the president and his team and the Democratic Party aren’t taking her campaign seriously, she replied, “I think it’s pretty fair to say they aren’t taking me seriously. But more importantly than that, that they’re trying to get you to not take me seriously. Which actually means they take me seriously on some level.”
But she charged “that kind of ridicule is purposeful. This is what they did to me last time – make her look like a laughing stock so no one could take seriously the idea of voting for her. They know what they are doing. That It’s the talking points of the Democratic Party establishment right now. But I hope people don’t buy it as easily as they did last time.”
During the 2020 cycle, Williamson was an unconventional candidate who preached the politics of love. She highlighted “six pillars for a season of moral recovery,” including economic justice. She proposed creating a Department of Children and Youths and a Department of Peace, and pushed for reparations for the descendants of African American slaves. One of her unorthodox acts was holding a meditation session while campaigning in New Hampshire.
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson leads a mediation in Manchester, New Hampshire, September 9, 2019
But Williamson struggled with fundraising and failed to qualify for most Democratic presidential debates. Days after she fired most of her small staff, she dropped out of the race in January 2020, just before the start of the primaries and primaries.
“I have the right to run. This is democracy,” Williamson told Fox News. And pointing to the Democrats, she said, “How can a party claim to be a champion of democracy when something in its initial process is the suppression of that democracy. It’s a way of trying to suppress my vote.”
Williamson was interviewed hours after she arrived in New Hampshire, as she began a five-day campaign in the traditional first-in-the-nation state presidential primary.
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She says she will spend much of her time campaigning in New Hampshire in the future. That’s no surprise, as political strategists have said that if a primary challenge comes up against Biden, New Hampshire appears to be the state where the action will take place.
New Hampshire, which prides itself on its well-informed electorate and emphasis on small-scale, grassroots retail politics, has held its first White House primaries for a century. While Republicans are making no changes to their presidential nomination calendar in the 2024 election cycle, last month the Democratic National Committee (DNC) voted overwhelmingly to approve a new top of the calendar pushed by Biden that would make it traditional scheme on its head.
New Hampshire will now vote second on the DNC’s calendar, along with Nevada, three days after South Carolina, under the new schedule.
But Granite State Democrats warn that New Hampshire will still go first — courtesy of a longstanding state law mandating the lead primary position — and that a primary not approved by the DNC, where Biden does not run, could cause problems. can benefit the president.
President Joe Biden speaks at the Winter Meeting of the Democratic National Committee on Friday, February 3, 2023 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (AP)
“Your primaries will be on schedule. So whether or not the president runs, this is where it’s going to happen,” Williamson said. “I’m here. And I think the people of New Hampshire have a tradition to weigh in and you get a chance to weigh in whether the president is here or now. I hope he’s here and I hope he’s with will debate me, but we’ll see.”
But later in the interview, she acknowledged that the odds of meeting Biden on the debate stage were slim.
Williamson is again pushing “an agenda of fundamental economic reform”. She argued “that’s not what the president offers. What the president offers is stress relief. What the president offers is doing what we can here and there to make people’s lives easier in an unjust system.”
Democratic presidential nominee Marianne Williamson campaigns in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on March 9, 2023. (Marianne Williamson campaign)
The candidate is calling for universal health care, tuition-free college and technical school, the removal of all college loan debt, a minimum wage of $15 an hour, free childcare, and paid family and medical leave. “These are moderate positions in any other advanced democracy,” she said. “The American people are trained to expect too little.”
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Criticizing Biden’s performance in the White House, she said, “If the president says ‘give me four more years to get the job done,’ then what job? Because the things I’m complaining about are things he’s done in his first four years could have done.”
And she vowed that “much more can be done and when I am president, it will be done.”
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter from New Hampshire.
