Rep. Adam Schiff gently fired back at Rep. Katie Porter, who claimed her bitter California Senate race was rigged following her loss.
Porter (D-Calif.) was outraged by her loss. she claimed to have been confronted “This is an onslaught of billionaires who spent millions of dollars rigging this election,” sparking a backlash from many Democrats.
“I have nothing but respect for my colleagues. But this word fraud is a word that carries a lot of weight in the era of Trump. It connotes fraud and ballot stuffing, false claims like that. Masu. [from] Donald Trump,” Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“What’s remarkable is how quickly Democrats came together to say, ‘No, we don’t use those words, the election was legitimate,'” Schiff, 63, added, noting that Porter endured. He pointed out the backlash.
Schiff juxtaposed Democrats’ condemnation of Porter’s use of the term “rig” with Republicans’ response to a similar claim by former President Donald Trump.
Porter, 50 years old previously defended She herself did not claim the election was stolen, but rather that it was nefariously influenced by outside forces.
“‘Mutilation’ means manipulated by fraudulent means. “Several billionaires spent more than $10 million on attack ads against me, including ads that were rated ‘false’ by independent fact-checkers,” she later wrote. I was indignant.
“That is [a] Cheating means manipulating the results. I said “manipulated by billionaires,” but our politics is – in fact – manipulated by huge dark funds. Defending democracy means calling it out loud. ”
According to the latest count, Mr. Schiff topped the Democratic candidate with an approval rating of 32.51%, followed by Republican Steve Garvey with 32.05%, Mr. Porter with 14.83% and Rep. Barbara Lee with 8.59%, giving Mr. Porter about a lead. He has a difference of 960,000 votes.
Despite his public grievances, Porter called Schiff after his loss and was very “courteous,” the congressman recalled.
“She congratulated me, which I thought was certainly a concession, and she gave me a very kind message,” he recalled. We are in a tough situation, but her call could not have been more polite. ”
California’s primary election was held on Super Tuesday last week to fill the seat vacated by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who passed away last September.
This election featured a “jungle” primary system in which Republicans and Democrats competed in the same primary, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the general election.
Mr. Schiff, a former Republican baseball great, and Mr. Garvey both won. Some Porter supporters accused Schiff of elevating Garvey by attacking him in various television ads.
“I think the challenge that my Democratic colleagues had was not so much Mr. Garvey’s ability to solidify the Republican Party as his inability to gain Democratic support,” Schiff said Sunday.
“Not having one Democrat spend millions of dollars trying to knock down another Democrat probably helps in a vote contest like that, because a lot of that funding goes to This is because it will be used to win seats for the Democratic Party.”
The fierce battle in California’s Senate primary race is one of the most expensive 2024 Cycle So Far.
Given that the Golden State is a Democratic stronghold, Schiff is the frontrunner heading into the general election.
Democrats face a tough challenge in retaining the Senate in 2024, having to defend 23 seats to Republicans’ 11.
Schiff, who served as impeachment manager during former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, said at one point in the interview that the intelligence community should “silence” Trump from his press conference if he got Republican consent. suggested.
Republican and Democratic presidential candidates typically have access to informational conferences.
“While that is customary, there has never been a situation where one of the presidential candidates was so criminally negligent in his handling of classified information,” he said.
President Trump has been indicted on 40 charges for allegedly storing classified materials, but he denies wrongdoing and maintains his innocence.
Mr. Schiff suggested that intelligence agencies “give him no information other than what is absolutely necessary” and argued that “we cannot trust him” with sensitive matters.
