玛丽安娜·威廉森，民主党总统候选人，广受欢迎的演说家，自助书籍的畅销书作家谁在发起黑马初选挑战对美国总统乔·拜登来说，她在英国呆了一个月，生下了第一个外孙，现在她正认真地回到自己的竞选活动中。
“现在我回来了，我会全力以赴，”威廉姆森告诉ABC新闻。
这是一场明显不同的竞选活动。在此期间，威廉姆森失去了第二位竞选经理，前总统唐纳德·特朗普因联邦指控被起诉他否认了总统的儿子亨特达成了认罪协议检察官和六名主要候选人进入共和党初选.
随着威廉姆森重新出现在赛道上，在新罕布什尔州、密歇根州、马萨诸塞州和伊利诺伊州安排了一系列活动，她在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时谈到了其中的一些话题。
本月，在代理竞选经理彼得·达乌离开几周后，罗萨·卡尔德隆离开了威廉姆森的团队，担任竞选经理。在威廉姆森2020竞选团队的一些工作人员详细描述了他们与一名据称表现出“无法控制的愤怒”并让员工哭泣的候选人一起工作的经历后，这是一次震动。根据政治的说法.
“有人不喜欢我直率的性格，我的直率，那我很抱歉。那么，很明显，这不是一个适合他们的活动，”威廉姆森在回应这些员工的叙述时说。“有很多为我工作的人，他们说了很多好话，我和他们相处得很好。”
威廉姆森的竞选团队认为，她面临的这种批评通常只会困扰其他女性。当ABC新闻问威廉姆森对她的最公正的批评是什么时，她似乎接受了她的直言不讳。
“也许我可以很强硬，但不像他们说的那样强硬，”她说，并补充说，“毕竟我在竞选总统。我认为你需要一个强硬的人。”
然而，这位精神顾问表示，前工作人员对她的评论，以及困扰她竞选的高层更替，并不是她的领导能力的反映。
“我们有一个很好的团队，”她坚持说。“而这一切都需要时间。亚伯拉罕·林肯经历了12位将军才找到尤利西斯·格兰特，我认为没有人会说他不是一个好经理。”
威廉姆森面临着与拜登的艰苦斗争，拜登拒绝了她的初选辩论呼吁，自75年前现代辩论巡回赛开始以来，在任总统都没有参加过这种辩论。
拜登在民调中继续遥遥领先于她，根据五点三十八分;预计他也将在资金竞赛中轻松击败她，本月他已经举行了八场大型筹款活动，周四还计划在纽约举行两场。值得注意的是，缺乏资金困扰着威廉姆森在2020年的竞选，迫使她在第一场初选前解雇了所有员工，作为ABC的子公司WMUR当时报道.
但她仍抱有希望。
“美国政治非常非常不可预测，”她说。
威廉姆森说她不会把这场比赛私人化。对她来说，这包括不要将亨特·拜登与检察官达成的协议武器化——仍在等待法官的批准——根据该协议，他将对两项轻罪税收指控认罪，并进入审前分流计划，以避免对重罪枪支指控的起诉。
“我认为我们需要记住的是，亨特·拜登不会竞选总统，”威廉姆森说。“亨特·拜登不是他的父亲，所以亨特·拜登的法律问题不关我的事，也不应该是你的事。”
她后来补充说，“这真的与这场比赛无关。”
相反，威廉姆森说，她将重点关注乔·拜登作为总统的工作，以及她批评他的政府在解决美国人面临的问题上采取的“渐进方法”，她说，拜登竞选团队标榜为胜利的立法——包括通货膨胀削减法案——还不够。
威廉姆森的政纲包括支持“根本性的经济改革”、全民医保、免学费大学和免费儿童保育。
拜登的连任竞选得到了威廉姆森本人支持的政界人士的支持，包括佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯。她的2024年竞选网站称，桑德斯是2016年唯一承认存在“被操纵”的系统并“想对此做点什么”的候选人。
“如果桑德斯参议员认为以这种方式实现这一目标的渐进方法已经足够，我尊重他的意见，”威廉姆森告诉美国广播公司新闻。“但不是我的。”
2023年3月11日，玛丽安娜·威廉森在新罕布什尔州曼彻斯特的布克里曼彻斯特与公众讨论她的竞选纲领。
incent Ricci/SOPA图像/LightRocket via Getty Images
威廉姆森抨击了拜登2020年竞选的一个主题，也是他在连任竞选中再次部署的一个主题，他说，“我们不会修复美国，直到我们帮助人们修复他们的生活，为了做到这一点，你不能只是说我们要治愈美国的灵魂。”
她不会给拜登的表现打分，但她说，拜登在2020年大选中击败唐纳德·特朗普，给了他“A”。
一段录音显示，鉴于特朗普卸任后发表的似乎承认并炫耀一份敏感军事文件的言论，特朗普第二次当选总统的前景“真的很可怕，”她说由ABC新闻获得和其他出口。
她说她对特朗普的话“并不感到震惊”,谁否认他有机密材料在录音的互动中。
“我认为，最令人震惊的是，他在如此重要的事情上缺乏理智的清醒，”威廉森说。“这些文件是关于非常非常严重的军事问题。这个人甚至不认真对待民主本身，总统的传统，或者显然是总统的责任。”
威廉姆森还说，她觉得自己应该得到更多的重视。她憎恨自己的竞选被贴上“希望渺茫”的标签她说，通过这些，她试图使自己的候选资格失去合法性。她说，她认为对她的最大误解是她是一个“疯狂的，水晶泼妇”
从未担任过民选公职的威廉姆森认为，她缺乏政治经验不是障碍，而是一种优势。
“问题不是我们在华盛顿没有好的政治汽车修理工，”她引用了她对选民的一部分宣传说。“问题是我们走错了路。这就是我所知道的。”
但当被问及她是否会选择一名民选官员作为她的副总统竞选伙伴时，威廉姆森说，“当然。”
“我认为这是一个好主意，是的”她说。"因为我们确实需要在座的一些了解政治机制的人."
Marianne Williamson defends leadership, pushes back on claim of ‘uncontrollable rage’
Marianne Williamson, the Democratic presidential candidate, popular speaker and bestselling author of self-help bookswho is mounting a dark horse primary challengeto President Joe Biden, is returning to her campaign in earnest after a monthlong stay in England for the birth of her first grandchild.
"Now that I'm back, I'm going to be hitting the ground running," Williamson told ABC News.
It's a campaign trail that is markedly different. In that time, Williamson lost a second campaign manager, former President Donald Trump was indicted on federal chargesthat he denies, the president's son Hunterreached a plea dealwith prosecutors and six major candidatesentered the Republican primary.
As Williamson reappears on the trail, with a slew of events scheduled in New Hampshire, Michigan, Massachusetts and Illinois, she addressed some of those topics in an interview with ABC News.
This month, Roza Calderón departed Williamson's team as campaign manager just weeks after acting campaign manager Peter Daou left. It's a shake-up that comes after some staffers on Williamson's 2020 campaign detailed their experiences working with a candidate who allegedly exhibited "uncontrollable rage" and made staff cry,according to Politico.
"Somebody doesn't like my blunt personality, my directness, then I'm sorry. Then, obviously, this wasn't the right campaign for them," Williamson said in response to these staffers' accounts. "There are a lot of people who have worked for me who had nice things to say and with whom I get along very well."
Williamson's campaign argues the kinds of criticism she is facing usually only plagues other women. When ABC News asked Williamson what the fairest criticism of her is, she seemed to embrace her bluntness.
"Probably that I can be tough, but not tough like they say," she said, adding, "I'm running for president after all. I think you need somebody who's tough."
However, the spiritual adviser said the reported comments attributed to her by former staff, and the top-level turnover plaguing her campaign, are not a reflection of her leadership abilities.
"We've got a good team," she maintained. "And it takes time to get all that. Abraham Lincoln went through 12 generals to get to Ulysses S. Grant, and I don't think anybody would say he wasn't a good manager."
Williamson faces an uphill battle against Biden, who has brushed off her calls for primary debates, something incumbent presidents have not participated in since the modern debate circuit began 75 years ago.
Biden continues to outpace her in polling by a yawning margin,according to FiveThirtyEight; and he is expected to easily lap her in the money race, too, having held eight big-dollar fundraisers this month, with two more planned in New York on Thursday. Notably, a lack of money troubled Williamson's campaign in 2020, forcing her to lay off her entire staff before the first primary contest, as ABC affiliate WMURreported at the time.
But she is holding out hope.
"American politics is very, very unpredictable," she said.
Williamson said she's not going to make the race personal. For her, that includes not weaponizing the agreement that Hunter Biden struck with prosecutors -- still awaiting a judge's approval -- in which he would plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter into a pretrial diversion program to avoid prosecution on a felony gun charge.
"I think what we need to remember is that Hunter Biden is not running for president," Williamson said. "Hunter Biden is not his father and so Hunter Biden's legal problems aren't my business and they shouldn't be yours."
She later added that "it really has nothing to do with this race."
Instead, Williamson said she will focus on Joe Biden's job as president and what she criticizes as his administration's "incremental approach" to addressing issues facing Americans, saying legislation the Biden campaign touts as victories -- including the Inflation Reduction Act -- don't go far enough.
Williamson's platform includes championing "fundamental economic reform," universal health care, tuition-free college and free child care.
Biden's reelection bid has received the backing of politicians whom Williamson herself aligns with, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Her 2024 campaign website states that Sanders was the only candidate in 2016 who acknowledged there was a "rigged" system and "wanted to do something about it."
"If Sen. Sanders thinks that the incremental approach getting there that way is enough, I respect that that's his opinion," Williamson told ABC News. "But it's not mine."
Taking a swipe at a theme of Biden's 2020 run and one he's deploying once again in his reelection bid, Williamson said, "We're not going to repair America until we help people repair their lives, and in order to do that you can't just say we're going to heal the soul of America."
She wouldn't assign a grade to Biden's performance, though she said gives him an "A" for defeating Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The prospect of a second Trump presidency is "really terrifying," she said, in light of comments he made appearing to acknowledge and show off a sensitive military document after leaving office, according to an audio recordingobtained by ABC Newsand other outlets.
She said she was "not shocked" by what Trump said,who has denied he had classified materialin the interaction on the recording.
"What was, I think, most stunning about it is his lack of intellectual sobriety, you know, about something so important," Williamson said. "These documents were about very, very serious military matters. And this man doesn't even take seriously that democracy itself, the traditions of the presidency, or obviously the responsibilities of the president."
Williamson also said she feels she should be taken more seriously. She resents her campaignbeing labeled a "long shot"by those, she said, seeking to delegitimatize her candidacy. She said she believes the biggest misconception of her is that she is a "crazy, crystal lady shrew."
Williamson, who has never served in elected office, believes her lack of political experience is not an obstacle but rather an asset.
"The problem is not that we don't have good political car mechanics in Washington," she said, quoting a part of her pitch to voters. "The problem is that we are on the wrong road. And that's what I know about."
But asked if she would pick an elected official to be her vice presidential running mate, Williamson said, "Absolutely."
"I think that would be a good idea, yes" she said. "Because we do need somebody in the room who knows those political mechanics."
