Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel told Newsmax Tuesday that the shift of the Democratic 2024 primaries putting South Carolina ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire show the weakness President Joe Biden has going into the race.
"It also shows how weak Joe Biden is that he's manipulating the [primary] calendar," McDaniel said during "Wake Up America" Tuesday. "Remember, he came in eighth in New Hampshire. He probably would have lost Iowa. Remember they bungled the Democrat results in 2020, so Joe Biden feels so weak.
"We're going into this presidential election that he's manipulating the calendar to give himself South Carolina first and Michigan, and taking away from states that are critical. I do think this will have long-term repercussions for New Hampshire, which has been a Democrat state."
The Democratic National Committee approved the primary calendar changes Saturday, ending more than 50 years of the traditional Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary being the first in the nation.
South Carolina and Michigan, both of which were good for Biden in 2020, will now take the top spots in the Democrat's 2024 primary cycle, according to The New York Times.
"This is a significant effort to make the presidential primary nominating process more reflective of the diversity of this country, and to have issues that will determine the outcome of the November election part of the early process," Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said in the report.
While the DNC and Biden see the move as a better demonstration of the country's voting diversity, former Democrat New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch sent a letter to Biden voicing his displeasure with the move.
"They could say June, they could say next week, they could say in five years, but it's not going to matter," the Times reported Lynch saying in the letter. "It's like asking New York to move the Statue of Liberty from New York to Florida. I mean, that's not going to happen. And it's not going to happen that we're going to change state law."
New Hampshire state law since 1968 demands that its primary be held before any other in the nation, and gives that state's legislature the ability to change dates to make that happen, according to the Constitution Center.
McDaniel said the RNC will remain "committed" to having both Iowa and New Hampshire on top of its primary calendar in 2024.
"The RNC committed to Iowa and New Hampshire on the standard calendar for a lot of reasons. One, the voters take it very seriously; it is retail politicking. It's also not cost prohibitive, so a lot of candidates can compete in both of those states and make the best case to the voters who are dialed in."
McDaniel said she expects Biden's State of the Union speech tonight to launch his reelection campaign and be made up of "lies."
"The question we should all ask ourselves is, Are you better off than you were when Joe Biden took office?' And 71% of Americans feel like we're on the wrong track.
"We know we have a border crisis. We know we have inflation that is skyrocketing. We know our kids are still dealing with massive deficits. So, we're not better off.
"What I expect tonight is lies, and then he'll go hide again. He's never going to work with Republicans, and it's going to be a bunch of show without any meat because Joe Biden has done nothing to make the American people's lives better."
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