Harris: Election Deniers And Their Supporting Politicians Are Degrading U.S.

Election deniers and the U.S. politicians supporting them are weakening the nation’s reputation as a world leader in democracy and creating “very dangerous” threats to the country, Vice President Kamala Harris said in an interview that aired Sunday.

“I think it is a threat. And I think it is very dangerous, and I think it is very harmful. And it makes us weaker,” she told NBC’s Chuck Todd of domestic attacks, which have included the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and related nationwide efforts to obstruct the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

“I think that we have to admit that there are attacks from within ... and we need to take it seriously. And we need to stand up together, all of us, and think of this not through a partisan lens but as Americas,” she said.

Harris positively referenced her time as a senator working on the Senate Intelligence Committee as an example of politicians working together “on common grounds, with a common purpose” and without political bias. These meetings were held behind closed doors and without cameras, she noted.

“People would take off their jackets, they’d roll up their sleeves, and they were Americans first, focused on the threats to our national security, on common grounds, with a common purpose, which is to defend our nation against attack,” she said. “When I think about what we have been seeing in terms of the attacks from within, I wish that we would approach it the same way – as Americans, instead of through some partisan lens.”

She called out politicians today who she said fail to uphold the rule of law and other democratic principles by continuously denying the outcome of the 2020 election. She noted the 11 election deniers who are currently running to oversee future elections in their home states.

In addition to sowing internal chaos, these individuals hurt the nation’s ability to be viewed and trusted at the global stage “as a defender and an example of a great democracy,” she said.

“I think what it sends is a signal that causes people to question, ‘Hey, is America still valuing what they talk about?’ ― which is the integrity of democracies, which means protecting a rule of law and the sanctity of these systems and speaking up when they are attacked,” she said.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) echoed Harris’ concerns about national security in a separate interview Sunday with CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” Speaking with host Margaret Brennan, Warner reflected on the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and compared the events to last year’s attack on the Capitol.

“In many ways, we defeated the terrorists because of the resilience of the American public, because of our intelligence community, and we are safer, better prepared,” he said of the 2001 attacks’ aftermath. “The stunning thing to me is here we are 20 years later, and the attack on the symbol of our democracy was not coming from terrorists, but it came from literally insurgents attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6.”

Warner said though the “threat of terror” has diminished in the wake of Sept. 11, he remains worried about election deniers.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...

• Harris To Lead U.S. Delegation To Japan For Abe's Funeral

• Election Lie Supporters Ask Supreme Court To Bless Radical Election Changes

• GOP Election Deniers Really Didn't Like Biden's Speech Calling Out GOP Election Deniers

• 9/11 Attacks Still Reverberate As U.S. Marks 21st Anniversary