President Joe Biden traveled to the birthplace of American democracy on Tuesday afternoon to deliver an impassioned “moral case” for voting rights, criticizing “raw and sustained” election subversion and the GOP effort to rewrite history regarding both the 2020 presidential election and the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol.
“Bullies and merchants of fear, peddlers of lies, are threatening the very foundations of our country,” Biden said at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
We are facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That’s not hyperbole — since the Civil War.
Biden continued, “The Confederates back then never breached the Capitol as insurrectionists did on Jan. 6. I’m not saying this to alarm you. I’m saying this because you should be alarmed.”
Biden expressed disdain for GOP officials who called January 6th just another day. But he pledged to fight back, saying he asked to double the size of the Department of Justice voting rights division tasked with “dismantling race discriminatory laws.”
“We will not give in. We will overcome,” Biden said.
“Some things in America should be simple and straightforward – the most important of those things, the most fundamental of those things, is the right to vote – the right to vote freely,” the president added.
Biden’s speech comes as GOP-led legislatures across the country are passing laws that it more difficult to vote. The Brennan Center for Justice warns, “As of June 21, 17 states enacted 28 new laws that restrict access to the vote. With some state legislatures still in session, more laws will certainly follow.”
Biden condemned those efforts calling them “unconscionable.”
“Have you no shame?” he asked GOP lawmakers.
“Are you on the side of truth or lies, fact or fiction, justice or injustice? Democracy or autocracy? That’s what it comes down to,” the president said.
“The denial of full and free and fair elections is the most un-American thing that any of us can imagine, the most undemocratic, the most unpatriotic and, sadly, not unprecedented.” Biden added. He compared the recent GOP rush to restrict voting access to poll taxes, literacy tests and voter intimidation tactics employed by groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
He also criticized the continued effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, saying “The Big Lie is just that: a big lie.” Biden said the election was the most scrutinized in history and his win was upheld after dozens of court rulings and recounts.
“In America, if you lose, you accept the results, you follow the Constitution. You don’t call facts fake and then try to bring down the American system just because you’re unhappy,” Biden added, in a clear reference to Trump. “That’s not statesmanship. That’s selfishness.”
Biden spoke in defense of the For The People Act, calling it a “national imperative.” He also expressed his support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, promising to sign it if it reaches his desk.
According to the Associated Press, “the For the People Act, would create national standards for voting that could roll back some of the restrictions that have been approved or are advancing in the Republican-led states, including Texas.”
However, Republicans have blocked the bill. “Most Republicans have similarly dismissed a separate bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore sections of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court has weakened,” reports the AP.
One word was noticeably absent from Biden’s speech: filibuster. The president did not address the procedural rule that empowers Republicans to block legislation.
