Biden: Election workers at risk means ‘something’s wrong’

President Biden on Monday during remarks at the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference in Washington thanked local election workers and said the notion of them being at risk ahead of the 2024 election means "something's wrong" in the United States.

“To all the county … election workers, thank you. I never thought I’d have to say this to anybody but thank you for your physical courage, thank you for your courage and your service to the community,” Biden told the conference at the Washington Hilton.

Biden, who often warns of the dangers of democracy posed by the possibility of former President Trump retaking the White House, spoke to the attitude in the country in that election workers have been targeted.

“The idea that I’d ever thought I’d be standing before over 1,000 country officials and having to thank somebody for being an election worker because they’re putting their life at risk,” he said. “Something’s wrong, folks, we’ve got to change this. We’ve got to change the attitude in this country.”

Since 2020, there has been a high turnover of local election officials in key states ahead of November, an issue experts have sounded alarms over. The surge in local election officials leaving their posts after facing threats and scrutiny has been linked to false claims of voter fraud since the 2020 election, largely led by Trump and his allies contesting his loss that year.

In the most high-profile case, two election workers in Georgia, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, were targeted and falsely accused of committing fraud during the 2020 election. Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's closest allies, was ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation case brought by Freeman and Moss for those baseless claims after a four-day civil trial in Washington in December.

Freeman and Moss also spoke to the House Jan. 6 committee that investigated the Capitol attack as well as during the trial, where they detailed incessant harassment including racist threats that forced them into hiding due to Giuliani's false claims.