President Joe Biden gave a speech in Georgia on Tuesday urging Congress to move the Freedom to Vote Act, stating that he was "bored with being quiet" with regards to voter laws.
The president, together with Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke on the grounds of Morehouse Faculty, a traditionally African-American college, and emphasised the significance of getting the invoice handed.
Regardless of some pushback from Democratic lawmakers who feared the speech can be merely a sleight of speaking factors, Biden went ahead and urged the Senate to move a invoice that he stated would assist "defend our democracy."
The Freedom to Vote Act, if handed, would enact a collection of steps to assist finish voter suppression all through the nation—notably in a variety of Republican states the place restrictive voter legal guidelines have been handed in 2021.
As well as, Biden additionally urged Congress to move the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act, which might equally present additional outlines for eliminating voter suppression.
Nonetheless, each of those payments have been blocked by GOP Senators, and the president known as for an finish to the filibuster that has been utilized by Republicans to dam debate on upcoming laws.
Under is a full transcript of President Biden's tackle:
In our lives and the lives of our nation—the lifetime of our nation, there are moments so stark that they divide all that got here earlier than from every little thing that adopted. They cease time. They rip away the trivial from the important. And so they power us to confront onerous truths about ourselves, about our establishments, and about our democracy.
Within the phrases of Scripture, they remind us to "hate evil, love good, and set up justice within the gate."
Final week, [Vice] President Harris and I stood in america Capitol to look at a kind of "earlier than and after" moments in American historical past: January sixth rebel on the citadel of our democracy.
In the present day, we come to Atlanta—the cradle of civil rights—to clarify what should come after that dreadful day when a dagger was actually held on the throat of American democracy.
We stand on the grounds that join Clark Atlanta—Atlanta College, Morehouse Faculty, and close to Spelman Faculty—the house of generations of advocates, activists, educators and preachers; younger folks, identical to the scholars right here, who've executed a lot to construct a greater America. (Applause.)
We visited the sacred Ebenezer Baptist Church and paused to prayed on the crypt of Dr. and Mrs. King, and frolicked with their household. And right here within the district—as was identified—represented and mirrored the lifetime of beloved good friend, John Lewis.
Of their lifetimes, time stopped when a bomb blew up the sixteenth Road Baptist Church in Birmingham and murdered 4 little women.
They [Time] stopped when John and lots of others in search of justice have been overwhelmed and bloodied whereas crossing the bridge at Selma named after the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
They stopped—time stopped, they usually pressured the nation to confront the onerous truths and to behave—to behave to maintain the promise of America alive: the promise that holds that we're all created equal however, extra importantly, need to be handled equally. And from these moments of darkness and despair got here gentle and hope.
Democrats, Republicans, and independents labored to move the historic Civil Rights Act and the voting rights laws. And every successive technology continued that ongoing work.
However then the violent mob of January sixth, 2021, empowered and inspired by a defeated former president, sought to win by means of violence what he had misplaced on the poll field, to impose the need of the mob, to overturn a free and honest election, and, for the primary time—the primary time in American historical past, they—to cease the peaceable switch of energy.
They failed. They failed. (Applause.) However democracy's—however democracy's visi—victory was not sure, neither is democracy's future.
That is why we're right here right now to face in opposition to the forces in America that worth energy over precept, forces that tried a coup—a coup in opposition to the legally expressed will of the American folks—by sowing doubt, inventing fees of fraud, and in search of to steal the 2020 election from the folks.
They need chaos to reign. We wish the folks to rule. (Applause.)
However let me be clear: This isn't about me or Vice President Harris or our celebration; it is about all of us. It is concerning the folks. It is about America.
Hear me plainly: The battle for the soul of America shouldn't be over. We should stand sturdy and stand collectively to verify January sixth marks not the top of democracy however the starting of a renaissance of our democracy. (Applause.)
, for the suitable to vote and to have that vote counted is democracy's threshold liberty. With out it, nothing is feasible, however with it, something is feasible.
However whereas the denial of honest and free elections is un-democratic, it isn't unprecedented.
Black Individuals have been denied full citizenship and voting rights till 1965. Girls have been denied the suitable to vote till simply 100 years in the past. The USA Supreme Courtroom, in recent times, has weakened the Voting Rights Act. And now the defeated former president and his supporters use the Massive Lie concerning the 2020 election to gas torrent and torment and anti-voting legal guidelines—new legal guidelines designed to suppress your vote, to subvert our elections.
Right here in Georgia, for years, you've got executed the onerous work of democracy: registering voters, educating voters, getting voters to the polls. You have constructed a broad coalition of voters: Black, white, Latino, Asian American, city, suburban, rural, working class, and center class.
And it is labored: You have modified the state by bringing extra folks, legally, to the polls. (Applause.) That is the way you gained the historic elections of Senator Raphael Warnock and Senator Jon Ossoff. (Applause.)
You probably did it—you probably did it the suitable approach, the democratic approach.
And what's been the response of Republicans in Georgia? Select the flawed approach, the undemocratic approach. To them, too many individuals voting in a democracy is an issue. In order that they're placing up obstacles.
For instance, voting by mail is a protected and handy option to get extra folks to vote, so that they're making it more durable so that you can vote by mail.
The identical approach, I'd add, within the 2020 Election, President Trump voted from behind the desk within the White Home—in Florida.
Dropping your ballots off to safe drop bins—it is protected, it is handy, and also you get extra folks to vote. In order that they're limiting the variety of drop bins and the hours you should utilize them.
Taking away the choices has a predictable impact: longer traces on the polls, traces that may final for hours. You have seen it with your personal eyes. Individuals get drained they usually get hungry.
When the Bible teaches us to feed the hungry and provides water to the thirsty, the brand new Georgia legislation truly makes it unlawful—consider this—I imply, it is 2020, and now '22, going into that election—it makes it unlawful to carry your neighbors, your fellow voters meals or water whereas they wait in line to vote. What within the hell—heck are we speaking about? (Laughter and applause.)
I imply, give it some thought. (Applause.) That is not America. That is what it seems to be like after they suppress the suitable to vote.
And this is how they plan to subvert the election: The Georgia Republican Occasion, the state legislature has now given itself the ability to make it simpler for partisan actors—their cronies—to take away native election officers.
Take into consideration that. What occurred within the final election? The previous president and allies pursued, threatened, and intimidated state and native election officers.
Election staff—atypical residents—have been topic to loss of life threats, menacing cellphone calls, folks stalking them of their houses.
Bear in mind what the defeated former president stated to the highest-ranking election official—a Republican—on this state? He stated, quote, "I simply need to discover 11,780 votes."
Pray God. (Laughter.) He did not say that half. (Laughter.)
He did not say, "Depend the votes." He stated, "discover votes" that he wanted to win.
He failed due to the brave officers—Democrats, Republicans—who did their obligation and upheld the legislation. (Applause.)
However with this new legislation in Georgia, his loyal—his loyalists can be positioned accountable for state elections. (Laughs.) What's that going to imply? Properly, the probabilities for chaos and subversion are even better as partisans search the end result they need—it doesn't matter what the voters have stated, it doesn't matter what the depend. The votes of practically 5 million Georgians can be up for grabs if that legislation holds.
It is not simply right here in Georgia. Final 12 months alone, 19 states not proposed however enacted 34 legal guidelines attacking voting rights. There have been practically 400 extra payments Republican members of state legislatures tried to move. And now, Republican legislators in a number of states have already introduced plans to escalate the onslaught this 12 months.
Their endgame? To show the need of the voters right into a mere suggestion—one thing states can respect or ignore.
Jim Crow 2.0 is about two insidious issues: voter suppression and election subversion. It is not about who will get to vote; it is about making it more durable to vote. It is about who will get to depend the vote and whether or not your vote counts in any respect.
It is not hyperbole; it is a reality.
Look, this issues to all of us. The purpose of the previous president and his allies is to disenfranchise anybody who votes in opposition to them. Easy as that. The info will not matter; your vote will not matter. They will simply determine what they need after which do it.
That is the form of energy you see in totalitarian states, not in democracies.
We have to be vigilant.
And the world is watching. I do know nearly all of the world leaders—the great and the unhealthy ones, adversaries and allies alike. They're watching American democracy and seeing whether or not we are able to meet this second. And that is not hyperbole.
After I confirmed up on the G7 with seven different world leaders—there have been a complete of 9 current—Vice President Harris and I've spent our careers doing this work—I stated, "America is again." And the response was, "For the way lengthy?" "For the way lengthy?"
As somebody who's labored in international coverage my entire life, I by no means thought I'd ever hear our allies say one thing like that.
Over the previous 12 months, we have directed federal businesses to advertise entry to voting, led by the Vice President. We have appointed high civil rights advocates to assist the U.S. Division of Justice, which has doubled its voting rights enforcement workers.
And right now, we name on Congress to get executed what historical past will decide: Cross the Freedom to Vote Act. (Applause.) Cross it now—(applause)—which might forestall voter suppression in order that right here in Georgia there's full entry to voting by mail, there are sufficient drop bins throughout sufficient hours with the intention to carry meals and water as properly to folks ready in line.
The Freedom to Vote Act takes on election subversion to guard nonpartisan electors [election] officers, who're doing their job, from intimidation and interference.
It might get darkish cash out of politics, create fairer district maps and ending partisan gerrymandering. (Applause.)
Look, it is also time to move the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act. (Applause.)
I have been having these quiet conversations with the members of Congress for the final two months. I am bored with being quiet! (Applause.)
Of us, it's going to restore the energy of the Voting Rights Act of '65—the one President Johnson signed after John Lewis was overwhelmed, practically killed on Bloody Sunday, solely to have the Supreme Courtroom weaken it a number of instances over the previous decade.
Restoring the Voting Rights Act would imply the Justice Division can cease discriminatory legal guidelines earlier than they go into impact—earlier than they go into impact. (Applause.)
The Vice President and I've supported voting rights payments since day one in every of this administration. However each time, Senate Republicans have blocked the way in which. Republicans oppose even debating the difficulty. You hear me?
I have been across the Senate a very long time. I used to be Vice President for eight years. I've by no means seen a circumstance the place not one single Republican has a voice that is prepared to talk for justice now.
After I was a senator, together with once I headed up the Judiciary Committee, I helped reauthorize the Voting [Rights] Act thrice. We held hearings. We debated. We voted. I used to be in a position to lengthen the Voting Rights Act for 25 years.
In 2006, the Voting Rights Act handed 390 to 33 in
the Home of Representatives and 98 to 0 within the Senate with votes from 16 present sitting Republicans on this United States Senate. Sixteen of them voted to increase it.
The final 12 months I used to be chairman, as a few of my buddies sitting down right here will let you know, Strom Thurmond voted to increase the Voting Rights Act. Strom Thurmond.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Wow.
THE PRESIDENT: You'll be able to say that once more: "Wow." You haven't any thought how rattling ha—how darn onerous I labored on that one. (Laughter and applause.)
However, of us, then it was signed into legislation, the final time, by President George W. Bush.
, once we obtained voting rights prolonged within the Eighties, as I've stated, even Thurmond supported it. Take into consideration that. The person who led the longest filibu—one of many longest filibusters in historical past in america Senate in 1957 in opposition to the Voting Rights Act [Civil Rights Act]. The person who led and sided with the previous Southern Bulls in america Senate to perpetuate segregation on this nation. Even Strom Thurmond got here to help voting rights.
However Republicans right now cannot and will not. Not a single Republican has displayed the braveness to face as much as a defeated president to guard America's proper to vote. Not one. Not one.
Now we have 50-50 in america Senate. Meaning we've 51 presidents. (Laughter.) You all suppose I am kidding. (Laughter.)
I have been fairly good at working with senators my entire profession. However, man, if you obtained 51 presidents, it will get more durable. Anybody can change the result.
Sadly, america Senate—designed to be the world's biggest deliberative physique—has been rendered a shell of its former self. It provides me no satisfaction in saying that, as an institutionalist, as a person who was honored to serve within the Senate.
However as an institutionalist, I consider that the risk to
our democracy is so grave that we should discover a option to move these voting rights payments, debate them, vote.
Let the bulk prevail. (Applause.) And if that naked minimal is blocked, we've no choice however to alter the Senate guidelines, together with eliminating the filibuster for this. (Applause.)
, final 12 months, if I am not mistaken, the filibuster was used 154 instances. The filibuster has been used to generate compromise previously and promote some bipartisanship. Nevertheless it's additionally been used to hinder—together with and particularly hinder civil rights and voting rights.
And when it was used, senators historically used to have to face and converse at their desks for nonetheless lengthy it took, and generally it took hours. And after they sat down, if nobody instantly stood up, anybody may name for a vote or the talk ended.
However that does not occur right now. Senators not even have to talk one phrase. The filibuster shouldn't be utilized by Republicans to carry the Senate collectively however to drag it additional aside.
The filibuster has been weaponized and abused.
Whereas the state legislatures' assault on voting rights is easy—all you want in your Home and Senate is a pure majority—in america Senate, it takes a supermajority: 60 votes, even to get a vote—as an alternative of fifty—to guard the suitable to vote.
State legislatures can move anti-voting legal guidelines with easy majorities. If they will try this, then america Senate ought to be capable of defend voting rights by a easy majority. (Applause.)
In the present day I am making it clear: To guard our democracy, I help altering the Senate guidelines, whichever approach they must be modified—(applause)—to stop a minority of senators from blocking motion on voting rights. (Applause.)
On the subject of defending majority rule in America, the bulk ought to rule in america Senate.
I make this announcement with cautious deliberation, recognizing the basic proper to vote is the suitable from which all different rights circulate.
And I make it with an attraction to my Republican colleagues, to these Republicans who consider within the rule of legislation: Restore the bipartisan custom of voting rights.
The individuals who restored it, who abided by it previously have been Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush. All of them supported the Voting Rights Act.
Do not let the Republican Occasion morph into one thing else. Restore the establishment of the Senate the way in which it was designed to be.
Senate guidelines have been simply modified to boost the debt ceiling so we would not renege on our debt for the primary time in our historical past and stop an financial disaster. That was executed by a easy majority.
As Senator Warnock stated just a few weeks in the past in a strong speech: If we alter the principles to guard the complete religion and credit score of america, we must always be capable of change the principles to guard the center and soul of our democracy. (Applause.) He was proper.
Within the days that adopted John Lewis's loss of life, there was an outpouring of reward and help throughout the political spectrum.
However as we stand right here right now, it is not sufficient simply to reward his reminiscence. We should translate eulogy into motion. We have to observe John Lewis's footsteps. We have to help the invoice in his identify.
Just some days in the past, we talked about—up within the Congress and within the White Home—the occasion developing shortly to have fun Dr. King's birthday. And Individuals of all stripes will reward him for the content material of his character.
However as Dr. King's household stated earlier than, it is not sufficient to reward their father. They even stated: On this vacation, do not have fun his birthday except you are keen to help what he lived for and what he died for. (Applause.)
The following few days, when these payments come to a vote, will mark a turning level on this nation's historical past.
We'll select—the difficulty is: Will we select democracy over autocracy, gentle over shadows, justice over injustice?
I do know the place I stand. I cannot yield. I cannot flinch. I'll defend the suitable to vote, our democracy in opposition to all enemies—international and, sure, home. (Applause.)
And the query is: The place will the establishment of america Senate stand? Each senator—Democrat, Republican, and unbiased—should declare the place they stand, not only for the second, however for the ages.
Will you stand in opposition to voter suppression? Sure or no? That is the query they will reply. Will you stand in opposition to election subversion? Sure or no? Will you stand for democracy? Sure or no?
And this is one factor each senator and each American ought to keep in mind: Historical past has by no means been sort to those that have sided with voter suppression over voters' rights. And will probably be even much less sort for individuals who facet with election subversion.
So, I ask each elected official in America: How do you need to be remembered?
At consequential moments in historical past, they current a selection: Do you need to be the si—on the facet of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you need to be on the facet of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you need to be on the facet of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?
That is the second to determine to defend our elections, to defend our democracy. (Applause.)
And for those who try this, you'll not be alone. That is as a result of the battle to guard voting rights has by no means been borne by one group alone.
We noticed Freedom Riders of each race. Leaders of each religion marching arm in arm. And, sure, Democrats and Republicans in Congress of america and within the presidency.
I didn't reside the battle of Douglass, Tubman, King, Lewis, Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner, and numerous others—identified and unknown.
I didn't stroll within the sneakers of generations of scholars who walked these grounds. However I walked different grounds. As a result of I am so rattling previous, I used to be there as properly. (Laughter.)
You suppose I am kidding, man. (Laughter.) It looks as if yesterday the primary time I obtained arrested. Anyway—(laughter).
However their struggles right here—they have been those that opened my eyes as a highschool scholar within the late—within the late '50s and early '60s. They obtained me extra engaged within the work of my life.
And what we're speaking about right now is rooted within the very thought of America—the concept Annell Ponder, who graduated
from Clark Atlanta, captured in a single phrase. She was a instructor and librarian who was additionally an unyielding champion of voting rights.
In 1963—once I was simply beginning faculty at college—after registering voters in Mississippi, she was pulled off a bus, arrested, and jailed, the place she was brutally overwhelmed.
In her cell, subsequent to her, was Fannie Lou Hamer, who described the beating this manner, and I quote: "I may hear the sounds of [the] licks and [the] horrible screams...They beat her, I do not know [for] how lengthy. And after some time, she started to wish, and requested God to have mercy on these folks."
Annell Ponder's buddies visited her the subsequent day. Her face was badly swollen. She may hardly speak.
However she managed to whi—whisper one phrase: "Freedom." "Freedom"—the one phrase she whispered.
After practically 250 years since our founding, that singular thought nonetheless echoes. Nevertheless it's as much as all of us to verify it by no means fades, particularly the scholars right here—your technology that simply began voting—as there are those that are attempting to remove that vi—vote you simply began to have the ability to train.
However the giants we honor right now have been your age after they made clear who we have to be as a nation. Not a joke. Give it some thought. Within the early '60s, they have been sitting the place you are sitting. They have been you. And like them, you give me a lot hope for the longer term.
Earlier than and after in our lives—and within the lifetime of the nation—democracy is who we're, who we have to be—now and perpetually. So, let's stand on this breach collectively. Let's love good, set up justice within the gate.
And keep in mind, as I stated, there's one—that is a kind of defining moments in American historical past: Every of those that vote can be remembered by class after class, within the '50s and '60s—the 2050s and '60s. Every one of many members of the Senate goes to be judged by historical past on the place they stood earlier than the vote and the place they stood after the vote.
There is not any escape. So, let's get again to work.
As my fath—my grandfather Finnegan used to say each time I walked out the door in Scranton, he'd say, "Joey, maintain the religion." Then he'd say, "No, Joey, unfold it."
Let's unfold the religion and get this executed. (Applause.)
Could God bless you all. And should God defend the sacred proper to vote. (Applause.) Thanks. I imply it. Let's go get this executed. Thanks. (Applause.)
Post a Comment