(NewsNation) — Democratic presidential candidate and self-help author Marianne Williamson is pushing President Joe Biden to debate her, and so far, Biden is not willing.
If there were a debate, Williamson says she would talk about the need for “fundamental economic reform.”
“I’m saying to the American people that we in this country should have what they have in every other advanced democracy, as in universal health care … free college tuition at public colleges and universities,” Williamson said Tuesday on “The Hill on NewsNation.”
Williamson is one of two Democratic challengers to Biden — the other being Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and argues Biden has offered only “incremental change” that isn’t helping Americans fast enough.
“I think the president deserves credit for the fact that he won in 2020, but I believe that 2024 is a different election,” Williamson said. “In order to defeat the Republicans in ’24, we’re going to have to be able to offer the American people something more than incremental change.”
While both Democrats and Republicans have challenged their party’s incumbent president, the president historically doesn’t participate in primary debates. In fact, no incumbent president has ever participated in a primary debate, according to the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Williamson is polling at 6%, according to a RealClearPolitics average, behind Kennedy Jr. at 16% and Biden at 62%. This is her second run for president, following a bid three years ago that ended in January 2020 before any primary elections took place.