Hillary Clinton reiterates Biden’s ‘threats to democracy’ message ahead of midterms

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said Republicans pose real “threats to our country,” echoing President Joe Biden’s closing message ahead of next week's midterm elections.

“They're going after democracy and even counting votes that they think will help them and not others that won't,” Clinton said on CNN. “I mean, those are real threats, threats to individuals and our lives every day, and threats to our country.”

Clinton’s comments mimicked rhetoric from Biden’s speech at Union Station on Wednesday night, where the president delivered a stark warning that the country’s democracy was close to crumbling. Heading into Tuesday’s midterm elections, the Senate is still a toss-up and the House likely to flip in favor of Republicans.

In his speech, Biden called out political violence and “lies of conspiracy and malice,” while also warning Americans of Republican officials and activists trying to undermine the vote on Tuesday.

“In our bones, we know democracy is at risk,” Biden said in the speech.

White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Thursday that Biden wanted to “issue one final warning” on the threat to democracy ahead of the midterms “to make very clear” that people are still peddling “the Big Lie” — the false assertion by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was stolen. Klain said Biden’s decision to deliver a speech was also influenced by Republicans raising the issue of election denial in the upcoming midterms and the violent attack last week on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

“I think all those things came together and led the president to make the strong remarks he made last night,” Klain said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Biden and his team of White House spokespeople have taken great pains in their pre-midterm messaging to differentiate between what they describe as more mainstream Republicans and the GOP's "ultra-MAGA" wing of loyal Trump allies. It is the latter group, Biden has argued, that represent a threat to democracy with its unwillingness to concede the 2020 presidential election and its efforts to seize greater control of the nation's electoral infrastructure.

“I think the president's remarks last night, they were very strong, and bipartisan, made it clear that the majority of Republicans, like the overwhelming majority of Democrats, oppose political violence but targeting and talking about the MAGA Republican officials who were stirring this,” Klain said.

Clinton, in her interview with CNN, did not lay out a similar distinction. She said Republicans aren’t concerned about voter safety but “want to keep voters scared" and called it “ironic” that Republicans are running their campaigns on the issue of crime but then “went silent” after the attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband last week. And while it was condemned by many top Republicans, the attack on Paul Pelosi at his San Francisco home became a punchline for others in the GOP who joked about the violent break-in that left the 82-year-old with a fractured skull.

“I find it ironic and frankly disturbing that when Paul Pelosi is attacked by an intruder in his own home with a hammer, the Republicans go silent about that crime,” Clinton said. “They're not concerned about voter safety. They just want to keep voters scared, because they feel that if voters are scared, if they're responding to negative messages, you know, they'll have a better chance and that's, you know, really regrettable.”

The former secretary of State did concede that it’s an “uphill battle” to convince people to get out and vote in a midterm election, attributing some low polling numbers for Democrats to a “turnout issue” rather than a messaging issue. Democrats have largely run their campaigns on the issue of abortion rights, while voters main concern is the economy and inflation.

Clinton said it’s difficult to “tell people what's going to happen in the future” when they’re mostly focused on the present, emphasizing that Republicans “have absolutely no plan to do anything about” costs of living and the economy. She pointed to Republican plans to overhaul Social Security and Medicare.

But she did admit to one criticism of the Democratic Party’s messaging during the midterm election cycle: not conveying well enough what’s been accomplished in the first two years of Biden’s presidency. She pointed to new infrastructure, investments in manufacturing and new ways to lower health care costs.

“In fact, the work that has been done by the Democrats in helping the economy and helping people deal with what is global inflation, not just American inflation, is truly impressive. And we got to get that message across more effectively,” Clinton said.

Clinton, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, will appear at a campaign event for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul later Thursday in New York. Hochul is running against Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin in a surprisingly tight gubernatorial race for the blue state. Hochul's lead, once in the double digits according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, now sits at 6.2 percentage points.

“I think that you'll see at the rally tonight where I'll be with Gov. Hochul and Vice President Harris a real strong message about how this election has to be put on the front burner for everybody and voters need to turn out and vote for themselves, vote for making a real difference in their lives,” Clinton said.