President Biden's Democratic presidential challengers are using the party's calls to "strengthen democracy" against it over its plans to hold no primary debates during the nomination-deciding contests next year, something they say is giving them a disadvantage in the race.
Robert F. Kenney Jr., an environmental lawyer and high-profile vaccine critic, and self-help author Marianne Williamson took aim at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Monday, calling its process "rigged," and accused it of "invisible-izing" those challenging Biden.
In its party platform, the DNC, in numerous instances, stresses the need to "strengthen our democracy," something appearing to run in contrast with its plans to limit the ability for voters to see their options for president.
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"When you have so many Americans who are concerned about election integrity, we should be doing everything we can in our party [Democrat Party] to show that, you know, this is not rigged, rigged system. That it is actually democracy… people can run and that they can get to debate and that the public is gonna be able to see them, and they’re [the DNC] doing kind of the opposite," Kennedy Jr. said in an interview with Breitbart News.
"There’s too many Americans who already think that the whole system is rigged against them. And this is confirmation of that. And I think that’s troubling," he added.
Williamson, who previously referred to the primary process as "rigged" last month, wrote on Twitter that the plan to hold no debates showed the party was acting as if "there ARE simply no other candidates," and "no other ideas we should discuss about ways to win in 2024, or other ideas we should discuss about ways to repair the country."
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"Too many people are too smart to accept this," she wrote.
"Maybe if people SAW other alternatives they would SEE other alternatives. Trying to sew it up for Biden by invisible-izing his opponents is a PR strategy unworthy of the Democratic Party," she later wrote, linking to a Monday article by The Washington Post about Biden's likely candidacy that made no mention of her or Kennedy Jr.
Williamson and Kennedy Jr. were bolstered in their criticisms by progressive activist Nina Turner, a former surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders', I-Vt., 2020 presidential campaign, who also took to Twitter to blast the DNC's plans.
"The DNC refusing to hold a single primary debate is undemocratic and robs the voters of choice. No one who feels confident in their record and/or ideas would hesitate to stand on them. The DNC should hold debates. This is supposed to be a democratic process," she wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to the DNC for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News' Andrew Murray contributed to this report.
