White House press secretary Jen Psaki said battling GOP-led attempts at voting regulation will be for President Biden a “fight of his presidency,” as she announced the president will speak to the public next week on voting rights.
Biden “believes that voting is a fundamental right for the American people. He’s going to use every lever at his disposal to advocate for that,” Psaki told reporters in the briefing room Friday. “This is going to be a fight of his presidency.”
“The president is going to speak to all of you and to the public next week about his continuing commitment to voting rights, expanding access to voting rights; something that he’s worked on for decades through his public career.”
The press secretary’s remarks come after news that the Department of Justice will sue the state of Georgia over its new voting law.
The lawsuit announcement comes two weeks after Garland said the Justice Department would scrutinize a wave of new laws in Republican-controlled states that tighten voting rules. He pledged to take action if prosecutors found unlawful activity.
BIDEN ACCUSES REPUBLICANS OF BACKING A ‘JIM CROW ERA OF THE 21ST CENTURY’
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp accused Democrats of “weaponizing” the Justice Department.
“This lawsuit is born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start. Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and their allies tried to force an unconstitutional elections power grab through Congress – and failed,” Kemp said.
“Now, they are weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out their far-left agenda that undermines election integrity and empowers federal government overreach in our democracy.”
“If you have such a fear of making it easier and more accessible for people to vote, then I would ask you what you’re so afraid of?” Psaki responded to the governor.
REPUBLICANS BLOCK ‘ROTTEN’ ELECTION REFORM BILL
As of May 22, election security bills had passed in 14 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Most recently, Texas House Democrats denied Republicans the quorum needed to pass a voting restriction bill in a dramatic walkout from the chamber. Vice President Kamala Harris then invited the state lawmakers to the White House.
This week, a sweeping election overhaul led by Democrats failed to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster and open debate.
Biden called the bill’s failure “the suppression of a bill to end voter suppression—another attack on voting rights that is sadly not unprecedented.”
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Democrats have recently backed a less drastic compromise by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., but even that proposal has been rejected by GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, Ky. He blasted the bill for its endorsement from Stacey Abrams and said, “It still retains S1’s rotten core: an assault on the fundamental idea that states, not the federal government, should decide how to run their own elections.”
Source: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/politics/~3/hl72JHyXsTQ/psaki-biden-resisting-gop-led-voting-bills-fight-presidency