President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the right to vote at the National Constitution Center, Tuesday, July 13, 2021
President Joe Biden on Tuesday (local time) shrugged off Donald Trump’s claims of ‘big lies’ about the 2020 presidential election, saying the US is facing “the most important test of our democracy since the Civil War” because of the alleged efforts. is facing. Republican Party to Suppress and Destroy the Right to Vote in Fair and Free Elections in a Voting Rights Address at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“It is clear, for those who challenge the results or question the integrity of the election, there has never been such scrutiny or any other election under such high standards. The big lie is just that, a big one. Lies,” Biden said.
Biden blasted Trump and others’ efforts to sow doubts about the 2020 election months after they called for the Grand Old Party (Republican Party)-led state legislatures to push for new election laws. have taken actions that would limit absentee voting and make it more difficult. To vote for certain groups.
Biden pointed to dozens of court challenges thrown at him by federal judges, some of whom were appointed by Trump. He said Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia confirmed their victories in each state through audits and recalculations, reported The Hill.
Just hours before Biden spoke, Trump issued a statement calling on Pennsylvania to audit the 2020 results, which saw Biden win the state by nearly 80,000 votes.
“In America, if you lose, you accept the consequences,” Biden said in a candid shot at Trump. “You abide by the constitution, you try again. You don’t ‘fake’ the facts and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you’re sad. It’s not politics. It’s selfishness.” ,” Biden said.
The president sought to warn of the dangerous consequences of Trump’s rhetoric in a long-awaited speech on voting rights. He remarked as Texas lawmakers fled the state to block the passage of a new election law and federal voting law hit a brick wall.
Texas is one of several states that have introduced restrictive new voting laws after the 2020 election. As The Hill reports, Georgia, Florida, Arizona and other GOP-led states have pushed for changes to their election laws.
Biden said, “The Jim Crow attack of the 21st century is real, it is unbelievable, and we are going to vigorously challenge it. While this massive attack against voting rights is not unprecedented, it is taking new and deadly forms. “
Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system that operated mainly, but not exclusively, in the southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s.
Biden noted that Republican lawmakers across the United States have introduced nearly 400 bills over the past year in efforts to restrict voting rights. State lawmakers have enacted nearly 30 laws since the 2020 election aimed at restricting access to the ballot by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law on June 21, Axios reported.
Biden urged Congress to take action to protect voting rights by passing the For the People Act as well as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
If enacted, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would help protect voters from racial discrimination and vote suppression.
Biden said the law is “a tool” to protect voting rights, and that the Justice Department “will use its officers to challenge the onslaught of state laws curtailing voting rights.”
Furthermore, he said, “There is an open assault in America today, an attempt to suppress and destroy the right to vote in fair and free elections. An attack on democracy, an attack on freedom. An attack on who we are.”
“They want the ability to decline the final count and ignore the will of the people if their favorite candidate loses,” Biden said of lawmakers pushing for voting restrictions.
“We are facing the most important test of our democracy since the Civil War. This is not an exaggeration,” he said.
“We have to build a coalition of Americans of every background and political party. Advocates, students, faith leaders, business executives. And that heightens the urgency of the moment,” he said.
(with ANI inputs)
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