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By Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland
ATLANTA (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for a full overhaul of US voting rights legislation in Congress and said Democratic lawmakers would need to make major changes to Senate rules to overcome Republican opposition.
In a speech designed to intensify the fight to pass federal voting laws and convince skeptical Democratic activists of their commitment, Biden called Republicans cowardly and pledged to change the U.S. Senate’s “filibuster” rule to pass legislation.
Calling it “the struggle for America’s soul,” Biden’s vote for Martin Luther King Jr. he put the fight against the segregation of the dead civil rights leader of the reverend.
Republicans need to choose which side of history they want to be on, Biden said, contrasting U.S. civil rights heroes with some of the most notorious white supremacists in U.S. history.
“Do you want to be on the side of Martin Luther King or George Wallace?” Biden asked, referring to the former segregationist governor of Alabama. “Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor (former congressman)? Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”
Connor was a commissioner in Birmingham, Alabama, and Davis was the head of the Confederate states in favor of slavery during the U.S. Civil War.
On January 6, 2021, Biden compared supporters of former President Donald Trump to the fight against the US Capitol’s fight for the rights to vote, which Biden called an “coup attempt.”
His tone echoed last week, the anniversary of the attacks, reflecting a new White House count https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bidens-2022-pitch-target-trump-acolytes-woo- swing-voters -2022-01-09 After focusing on working with Republicans for a year.
“Not a single Republican has shown the courage to fight a defeated president to protect America’s right to vote. None,” Biden said, referring to Trump and his voting rights.
Trump has said that the 2020 election has been stolen by Biden Democrats through voter fraud, despite counts and investigations that have found no evidence to support his claim. Since then, 19 Republican lawmakers have passed dozens of laws https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-erect-voting-barriers-politically-crucial-us-states-2021-06-16 harder to vote . Critics say these measures are disproportionately affecting minorities.
Before Biden spoke, there was a moment of solemnity as he and Vice President Kamala Harris stood in front of King’s grave next to King’s family, bowing their heads. After the event, Biden and Harris talked about it on the combined campus of Clark University in Atlanta and Morehouse College, two schools that are historically black.
FILIBUSTER WORKSHOP-OUT
Biden wants to give public support to federal legislation to strengthen voting rights, in particular the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Both have dried up so far as a result of the united opposition of Republicans, who say they would set questionable national standards in local elections.
Biden said that if no progress could be made in legislation, Senate lawmakers “should change the rules, including the removal of filibuster.”
Filibuster https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-senate-democrats-mull-ending-filibuster-pass-voting-rights-reform-2022-01-11 is a parliamentary maneuver 60-. A full majority in the Senate instead of a simple majority.
“Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate, designed to be the largest deliberative body, has become the shell of its predecessor,” Biden said.
Republicans quickly criticized Biden’s filibuster proposal as an exaggeration.
“What the Democrats have come up with is a ‘voting rights’ bill that is really just a political and partisan power. And now they want to eradicate filibustering to pass this drastic legislation, which would increase the confusion in our electoral process,” the senator said. Mike Crapo said after Biden’s speech. [L1N2TR2YV]
Biden’s most recent request so far has been for the Senate to change its rules. It is unclear whether there will be votes among Democrats to change the rule.
Biden said he has had quiet conversations with lawmakers in recent months about the legislation, but “I’m tired of being silent.”
Harris, who introduced Biden, warned that without national legislation, newly enacted laws in the Republican states could affect 55 million Americans.
“If we stay with our entire nation, it will pay the price for generations to come,” Harris said.
Georgia was a warring state in the 2020 election, and Democrats won two decisive seats in the U.S. Senate https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-georgia/georgia-delivers-senate-to-democrats-with – warnock-ossoff-wins-idUSKBN29B173 gave them effective control of the chamber in the January 2021 competitions. A year later, the Republican-led state legislature approved broad voting restrictions https://www.reuters.com/world/us/big-changes-under-georgias-new-election-law-2021-06-14. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit alleging that the law violates the rights https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-sue-georgia-over-restrictive-new-state-voting-law-source-2021-06- 25 black voters.
Democrats are tying themselves up https://www.reuters.com/world/us/first-months-2022-crucial-biden-agenda-november-midterms-loom-2022-01-10 they may remove them for the upcoming 2022 congressional election the possibility of changing the federal laws of majority and voting.
Many civil rights activists say Biden should do more to push for reforms in his first year, and some, including Stacey Abrams of Georgia, did not attend his speech.
Biden told White House reporters on Tuesday that he had spoken to Abrams and that although the schedule was confused, they were “on the same page.”
(This story is directed in the year of the seventh paragraph)
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