Williamson claims DNC trying to ‘suppress’ campaign to favor Biden

After speaking to about 100 people at a campaign stop in northwest Las Vegas, presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson complained that the Democratic National Committee has been trying to “suppress” her candidacy in favor of incumbent President Joe Biden.

“The DNC was very overt this year about seeing its role as ensuring Joe Biden’s nomination,” Williamson claimed. “I think this has been unfortunate for the Democratic Party and for democracy itself, suppressing the kind of robust conversation that democracy requires.”

The candidate is one of 20 people, Democrat and Republican, whose names appear on the ballot during the statewide Presidential Preference Primary race on Tuesday. Early voting started Jan. 27 and ended Friday, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.

Williamson, 71, who favors an “immediate cease-fire” in the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, criticized Biden’s decision last week to bomb dozens of targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a drone attack, launched by Iran-supported militias, that killed three U.S. service members on Jan. 28.

“He’s a far more militaristic president than any of us expected,” she said.

She also pointed out the differences she and the president have on other issues, including her favoring Medicare for All, which Biden opposes. She also took issue with Biden’s approval of drilling permits such as the large Willow oil drilling site in Alaska, which she is against.

Williamson said that if elected she would take steps to address climate change issues.

“I would declare a climate emergency if necessary to make sure that we began an immediate mass mobilization for a just transition from a dirty economy to a clean economy,” she said.

Speaking at the Las Vegas Center for Spiritual Living & Unity, Williamson, an author of six self-help books and a former spiritual leader of a church in Michigan, said that people in American society tend to focus too much on their individual selves and not enough on moral concerns affecting society.

“When it comes to our collective behavior, it seems like we have lost any sense of public conversation about the moral good,” she said.

About 68,000 Americans died each year from lack of health care, 18 million cannot afford the drugs prescribed to them by their doctors and from 75 million to 90 million are underinsured or uninsured, she said.

“How many more times are they going to tell us that it’s complicated when we know better?” she asked. “No, it’s not complicated. It’s corrupt.”

Elected officials are part of a system that cares less about the people and more in promoting the interests of their campaign financiers and lobbyists, she claimed.

“Their behavior makes it clear that they are not representing us so much as they are representing their donors,” she said.

“Because of so much money there is now, such undue influence of money on our political system, that time after time they do more to represent the short-term financial interests of their donors than they do to represent your safety, your health and your well-being,” she said.

According to a campaign news release, Williamson favors universal health care, tuition-free college, guaranteed paid family leave, free child care, guaranteed sick pay, housing and a living wage, and canceling student debt.

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on X.