Consultant Adam B. Schiff, who turned the Democratic nominee for an open Senate seat in California final week, denied on Sunday the suggestion that his main had been rigged.
Mr. Schiff stated that Democrats had swiftly rebuked an assertion from one in every of his main opponents, Consultant Katie Porter, that rich donors had spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} for Mr. Schiff to “rig” the race, contrasting his get together and former President Donald J. Trump’s false claims across the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.
“That time period ‘rigged’ is a really loaded time period within the yr of Trump,” Mr. Schiff stated in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It connotes fraud, poll stuffing and false claims like these of Donald Trump. I believe what’s outstanding is Democrats in a short time rallied to say, ‘No, we don’t use that language.’”
Ms. Porter, one in every of Mr. Schiff’s two progressive main opponents for the seat, thanked her supporters on social media final week and went on to explain “an onslaught of billionaires spending thousands and thousands to rig” the first.
Her remarks drew fast criticism from Democratic colleagues, together with Senator Alex Padilla of California, who dismissed Ms. Porter’s suggestion as “ridiculous” in an interview with Politico.
“That may be a sharp distinction to how the Republican Occasion treats allegations of rigged elections,” Mr. Schiff added on Sunday, referring to Republicans who’ve characterised the prosecutions after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol as political retribution. “Certainly, they’re urging President Trump to pardon the Jan. 6 insurrectionists if he ever received an opportunity.”
Ms. Porter didn’t advance within the Senate main final week after Mr. Schiff and his allies spent tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} airing tv advertisements that described Steve Garvey, the Republican opponent, as “too conservative for California.”
Mr. Schiff’s advertisements have been extensively understood to be a part of his marketing campaign technique to attract extra Republican voters to the polls to field out his Democratic rivals in California’s “jungle” main, the place the 2 prime finishers advance to the final election no matter their get together affiliation.
The advertisements drew sharp criticism from Ms. Porter, who characterised them as “overtly cynical.”
Mr. Schiff defended his marketing campaign technique through the Sunday interview, saying he merely went after his Republican opponent as his Democratic colleagues did.