Biden decries Trump's 'Big Lie,' but offers no new path on voting rights
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[July 14, 2021]
By Steve Holland
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -President Joe
Biden, under pressure from U.S. civil rights leaders, on Tuesday called
it a "national imperative" to pass sweeping voting rights legislation
that has stalled in Congress, but he did not outline a path to overcome
Republican opposition.
Numerous Republican-controlled states have passed new voting
restrictions this year, a push encouraged by Biden's Republican
predecessor Donald Trump.
In a passionate speech in a city considered the nation's birthplace,
Biden, without naming him, took aim at Trump and his supporters for
false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from the Republican
former president through widespread voting fraud.
"So hear me clearly: there's an unfolding assault taking place in
America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in
fair and free elections," Biden told a cheering crowd in Philadelphia.
"The Big Lie is just that: a big lie," Biden said, referring to
unfounded election fraud claims by Trump and his allies.
"In America, if you lose you accept the results, you follow the
Constitution. You try again. You don't call facts fake and try to bring
down the American experiment just because you're unhappy. That's not
statesmanship. It's selfishness," Biden added.
Republicans must "stand up, for God's sake," and oppose voting
restrictions, Biden said, adding a challenge: "Have you no shame?"
The voting rights legislation faces an uphill battle in Congress, where
Biden's fellow Democrats have been stymied by Senate Republicans who
blocked it even from being debated. Biden's focus on the subject, even
if the legislation fails, enables him to rally Democratic voters as his
party works to maintain control of Congress in the 2022 midterm
elections.
Biden made a searing critique of what he called efforts to undermine
voting rights, likening them to past laws that prevented Black people
and women from voting in the United States.
"They want to make it so hard ... that they hope people don't vote at
all. That's what this is about," Biden said of those efforts.
"We must pass the 'For the People Act.' It's a national imperative,"
Biden added, referring to the legislation.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law
School, at least 17 states this year have enacted laws that restrict
voting access, with more being considered.
Biden's party and civil rights groups have opposed these restrictions,
which critics have said are aimed at Black, Hispanic and younger voters,
who have helped elect Democrats. Many Republicans have justified new
restrictions as a means to combat voter fraud, a phenomenon that
election experts have said is rare in the United States.
Two of the nation's foundational documents, the Declaration of
Independence and the U.S. Constitution, were signed at Independence
Hall, just steps away from the National Constitution Center where Biden
made his speech.
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President Joe Biden pauses as he delivers remarks on actions to
protect voting rights in a speech at National Constitution Center in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis
THE FILIBUSTER
Biden did not announce a new position on a Senate custom called the
filibuster under which most legislation cannot advance without the
support of 60 members of the 100-seat chamber. The Senate is split
50-50 between the parties, with Democrats in control because Vice
President Kamala Harris can cast a tie-breaking vote.
Some advocates want Biden to back an arrangement that would prevent
the filibuster from blocking the voting rights bill. Biden, who
served in the Senate for decades, has resisted calling for ending
the filibuster.
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton noted to Reuters after the speech
that Biden did not mention the filibuster, and said he had just
spoken to the president. "And he said to me just now, 'Al, we're
still working through where we are going to be on that.' He's not
committed yet."
If passed, the Democratic-backed bill would expand opportunities to
cast ballots before Election Day, make certain campaign
contributions more transparent and change the process for drawing
the boundaries of House of Representatives districts. Republicans
said the measure violates the authority of states to set their own
election laws.
"Joe Biden is the president of the United States, who legitimately
got elected," House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said on Fox
News.
But he and other Republicans said it was imperative that Republicans
reform voting laws.
"You want to make sure that you don't have fraud involved in
elections."
Biden met last week with civil rights leaders who prodded him to
keep fighting for voting rights despite Republican resistance.
In Texas on Monday, more than 50 Democratic legislators left
that state in a bid to derail Republican efforts to pass voting
restrictions. The Democratic legislators said on Tuesday they plan
to stay in Washington as long as needed to derail the state
legislation and push for federal voting reform.
Harris told Reuters the Texas lawmakers showed "great courage." She
met with them after Biden's speech.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; additional reporting by Susan Cornwell,
Jeff Mason and Diane Bartz; Editing by Heather Timmons and Stephen
Coates)
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