Michigan Democratic congressional candidate William Lawrence said during a 2024 podcast appearance that it would be “just” to “redistribute all the land and all the money” as well as inaugurate a “world without borders”
Lawrence, who recently ditched his Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) membership as he competes in a critical swing district, now insists he no longer believes in those radical objectives.
“I think we are lacking for a framework that can make sense of how to be revolutionary in the sense of truly, truly, wanting a world without borders and wanting to redistribute all the land and all the money,” Lawrence, now 36, said while interviewing Mijente Policy Director Jacinta González on the “Hegemonicon” podcast in October 2024.
“That would be just if it were to occur,” he added, “because it is the result of violence and evil deeds that the inequality exists today.”
The co-founder of the left-wing Sunrise Movement then pondered whether it would be more effective to work on “meeting people where they’re at and trying to do something that is gonna save somebody’s life now or to build power now.”
“Like many millennials, I’ve done my fair share of thinking out loud on the internet,” Lawrence told the Washington Free Beacon, which first unearthed his past remarks Wednesday.
“I don’t support open borders,” he went on. “I remain a staunch critic of the political status quo, and the obscene concentration of wealth and power that corrupts our politics and leaves working people unrepresented.”
Lawrence’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The progressive emerged from a competitive Democratic primary to take on incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.) in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, which includes the state capital, Lansing.
Earlier this year, Lawrence fawned over notorious far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, but has since taken steps to moderate his image, scrubbing several past social media posts in which he espoused far-left views.
In the past, Lawrence backed defunding the police and ripped into black Democratic leaders for embracing the “establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power.”
During the interview with González, the two groused about both President Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris vowing to be “tougher” on immigration during the ongoing presidential campaign.
“If we lived in a humane society, this would be all the excuse that we needed not only to mitigate climate change, but to throw open the gates and welcome all of the migrants, the refugees, the asylum seekers from climate disaster and conflict all around the world,” he said.
“Of course, what we’re seeing is the exact opposite, which is a fortress mentality.”
