PHILADELPHIA (AFP) – US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that protecting Republicans from “election sabotage” voting rights is a historic “test” for the United States in the wake of the 2020 election.
“It is up to all of us to defend that right. It is the test of our times,” he said in a speech in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the US Constitution.
“This is election sabotage,” Biden said, referring to a plethora of new voting rules in the name of security, along with efforts led by Donald Trump to overturn the outcome of the presidential election.
“This is the most dangerous threat to the integrity of voting and free and fair elections in our history,” he said in a fiery speech.
Biden noted that in 2020 in response to Republican allegations of fraud, more than 80 courts — up to the Supreme Court — held hearings and found nothing wrong with every case.
He said the 2020 presidential and congressional elections had the highest turnout in history despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and the latter was “the most scrutinized election ever in US history”.
Without naming Trump, he clarified what he thinks about Republicans’ unprecedented campaign to reverse the results.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the right to vote at the National Constitution Center Tuesday, July 13, 2021 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Ivan Vucci)
“The big lie is just that: a big lie,” he said. “In America if you lose you accept the consequences, you abide by the constitution. You try again. You don’t call the facts ‘fake’ and then try to bring down the American experiment just because Because you’re sad.”
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The speech in the city where the founding document of the American democratic system was drafted and signed in 1787 is Biden’s highest profile in controversy, which has been harshly described by both Republicans and Democrats.
Republicans are using state legislatures to restrict voting rights across the country under the guise of increasing electoral security, according to Democrats in the White House and Congress.
Republicans, favored by Trump, insisted that stricter voting rules are needed to crack down on voter fraud.
That means cutting back on mail-in voting, shortening voting hours and imposing heavy fines against poll workers who make mistakes.
While Republicans say such measures would clean up US elections, Democrats already point to a very low incidence of fraud and say the measures target black and other non-white voters, who are not able to vote for the Democratic vote. give.
“They want to make it so difficult and inconvenient that they expect people to not vote at all,” Biden alleged.
However, it is not clear what difference that might make to him.
In his speech, he announced a doubling of the workforce for the Voting Rights Division of the Justice Department.
Rep. Mark Vesey, D-Texas, center left, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, joined on the left by Rep. Chris Turner, chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, welcomes Democratic members of the Texas legislature to a news conference. At the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Lawmakers left Austin in the hope that they would deny the Texas Legislature a quorum—the minimum number of delegates who have to be present for the institution’s operation, as they try to kill a Republican. Makes it difficult to vote in the Lone Star State. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
But widespread effect would require a change in laws and Democrats, despite having a small majority in Congress, have been unable to get past Republican use of a blocking rule known as a filibuster.
Under the filibuster rule, it takes 60 senators out of 100 to pass most legislation. The Democrats have only 50 senators, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast a tie-breaking vote if needed.
Biden, however, has so far been reluctant to throw his weight outright by some Democrats to throw out the filibuster.
In the most dramatic episode of the ongoing struggle over voter access, Democratic lawmakers in Texas left the state on Monday to prevent a quorum in the legislature, where the Republican majority was about to vote in new restrictions.
The Democrats’ exodus was the second time they used unusual tactics to derail the bill. Texans headed for Washington where they were lobbying congressional lawmakers to move forward on federal vote protection laws.