White House Previews Presidential Speech On Voting Rights
Psaki: new GOP voting laws are "authoritarian and anti-American"
President Biden will travel to Philadelphia, Pa., Tuesday to give a presidential speech in the birthplace of American democracy to make the case for the “moral imperative of making voting more accessible to people across the country,” according to White House Press secretary Jen Psaki.
The address comes as congressional Democrats are fighting hard to approve new voting rights legislation over the objections of their Republican counterparts, and in the face of the wave of Republican-led state laws aimed at making it harder for many Americans — particularly Black and other disadvantaged Americans — from voting.
Such laws are spurred on by former president Donald Trump's “Big Lie,” the baseless and fictional assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from him due to massive Democratic fraud.
Since his inauguration, Biden's been speaking out against the enactment of laws which make it harder for Americans to cast their ballots.
With the president's speech on the matter coming up Tuesday, Psaki offered reporters a preview of the speech Monday from the White House briefing room.
'The moral case’
“He’ll lay out the moral case for why denying the right to vote is a form of suppression and a form of silencing and he will redouble his commitment to using every tool at his disposal to continue to fight to protect the fundamental right of Americans to vote against the onslaught of voter suppression laws based on a dangerous and discredited conspiracy theory that culminated in assault on our Capitol,” Psaki said, referring to the events of January 6, in which Trump's violent backers attempted to stop the lawful and legitimate certification of Biden as the next president of the United States. “He’ll call out the greatest irony of the ‘Big Lie’ is that no election in our history has met such high standard with over 80 judges, including those appointed by his predecessor, throwing out all challenges.
“He’ll also decry efforts to strip the right to vote as authoritarian and anti-American and stand up against the notion that politicians should be allowed to choose their voters or to subvert our system by replacing independent election authorities with partisan ones,” Psaki added. “And he will highlight the work of the administration against this, the necessity of passing the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and how we need to work together with civil rights organizations to build as broad a turnout and voter education system to overcome the worst challenge to our democracy since the Civil War.”
The For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are the specific pieces of voting rights legislation which Democrats are fighting to overcome a Republican filibuster, and win approval in the Senate.
“So this is an opportunity for him to make the case to the American people about how this is a fundamental right, what he will continue to do from the federal government,” Psaki said of Biden. “I would remind you he signed a historic executive order on the 56th anniversary of Selma, which put in place funding measures and a priority from the federal government. The Department of Justice has already used tools to fight against these laws in states. They will continue to. He’ll talk about that as well, but the last piece is he will talk about also the importance of empowering, engaging and supporting efforts around the country to make sure people know their rights and understand how to participate in the process.”
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