{"id":7494,"date":"2026-06-18T04:05:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegorelocationnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/kiley-says-biden-legitimately-won-2020-election-after-years-of-refusing-to-answer\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T04:05:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:05:40","slug":"kiley-says-biden-legitimately-won-2020-election-after-years-of-refusing-to-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegorelocationnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/kiley-says-biden-legitimately-won-2020-election-after-years-of-refusing-to-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiley says Biden legitimately won 2020 election after years of refusing to answer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rep. Kevin Kiley now says former President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election \u2014 a position he had repeatedly refused to state publicly in years past.<\/p>\n

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Kiley, who left the Republican Party to become an independent in March, provided the statement earlier this month while on a NewsNation segment about California\u2019s slow primary vote count. During the discussion, Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, argued public trust in elections had wavered because politicians such as Kiley refused to acknowledge Biden\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

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Broadcaster Chris Cuomo, who moderated the segment, quickly interrupted to ask Kiley whether that was true.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s completely false,\u201d Kiley answered. \u201cI said at the time, have always said, that absolutely Biden was the winner. We determined the presidency in our system through the electoral college, and he won the electoral college majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But his answer contrasts with at least three previous instances in 2021 and 2022 when he declined to directly say whether he believed Biden was the legitimate winner. Berman referenced one of those exchanges, in which Kiley said the answer depended on the definition of \u201clegitimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat undermines voters\u2019 faith in our democracy and that\u2019s the problem,\u201d Berman said. \u201cPeople lying about our elections and the accuracy of our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kiley\u2019s previous responses are well-documented. In the years after the 2020 election, many Republican politicians faced questions about whether they accepted Biden\u2019s victory as Trump continued to falsely claim the election was marred by widespread fraud.<\/p>\n

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In August 2021, when asked by the LA Times editorial board who was the legitimate winner, Kiley said: \u201cI don\u2019t delve into electoral politics at all. The electoral college voted and that\u2019s who determines the powers of the presidency in our system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When the editorial board followed up by asking whether he believed the election was stolen or rigged, Kiley offered a similar response.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t delve into national politics,\u201d Kiley said. \u201cNice try, this is what Gavin Newsom likes to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Sacramento Bee asked him the same question in March 2022. This time, Kiley said he was \u201clooking ahead to the next election.\u201d He received an endorsement from Trump two months later.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t think it does us any good to be litigating past battles,\u201d Kiley told The Bee.<\/p>\n

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He declined to answer a third time during a debate hosted by KCRA3 and CapRadio in June 2022.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, it depends what you mean by legitimate,\u201d Kiley said. \u201cThe electoral college voted and that\u2019s how we determine the powers of the presidency in our system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He continued by saying that protecting elections is an \u201cimportant priority\u201d and argued California\u2019s one-party dominance created opportunities for abuses of power.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRight now we have one party that controls all the levers at both the state and federal levels and it\u2019s time to restore some balance,\u201d Kiley said.<\/p>\n

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