Black Lives Matter lambasted the Democratic Party on Tuesday for rallying behind Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden exited the race in an unprecedented fashion, accusing the party of “anointing” her without letting primary voters have their say.
On Sunday, Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race and subsequently endorsed Harris to take his place. Soon after, the vice president quickly received over 260 endorsements from elected Democrats and over $100 million in fundraising since Sunday afternoon.
However, BLM is unhappy with the new presumptive nominee. To remedy the issue, the left-wing organization demands that the Democratic National Committee host a virtual snap primary to accommodate voters prior to its August convention.
“We do not live in a dictatorship. Delegates are not oligarchs,” the group declared in a Tuesday statement. “Any attempt to evade or override the will of voters in our primary system—no matter how historic the candidate—must be condemned.”
The antagonistic statement comes after Harris secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee Monday night. She will likely be nominated at the DNC’s virtual roll call ahead of the party’s nominating convention in Chicago next month. But BLM wants the public to participate in the nomination process.
“This is about the Democratic Party following a process that protects the legitimacy of any future Democratic president following this unprecedented moment,” the organization said. “Installing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee and an unknown vice president without any public voting process would make the modern Democratic Party a party of hypocrites. It would undermine their credibility on issues related to democracy.”
BLM expressed concern that any process other than the virtual snap primary would be considered undemocratic and lend credence to critics’ claims that Harris was selected solely because of her race and gender.
“Imagine our first Black woman president not having won some sort of public nomination process,” the statement reads. “The pundits would immediately label it as affirmative action or a DEI move, and any progress made by a President Harris would be on shaky foundations. If Kamala Harris is to be the nominee, it must be through a process that upholds democratic principles and public participation.”
Some Republican lawmakers, including Representative Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.), labeled Harris a “DEI hire” for bypassing the nomination process. These criticisms prompted House GOP leaders to hold a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, telling their members to start focusing on the vice president’s record instead of her race.
“This should not be about personalities. It should be about policy. And we have a record to compare,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) told Politico, saying Harris would have to answer for Biden’s record during her campaign. “This has nothing to do with race. It has to do with the competence of the person running for president, the relative strength of the two candidates and what ideas they have on how to solve America’s problems. And I think in that comparison, we’ll win in a landslide.”