President Biden says that he supports changing Senate rules in order to pass voting rights legislation. From the Associated Press.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris watch as Martin Luther King III lays a wreath at the tomb of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and his wife Coretta Scott King, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, in Atlanta.
And even if Democrats clear the obstacles to passage of the voting rights laws, it could be too late to counter widespread voting restrictions passed in 19 states following former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss and his lies — embraced by many in the GOP — that the election was stolen through voter fraud.
With Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., setting next Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a deadline to either pass voting legislation or consider revising the rules around the chamber’s filibuster blocking device, Biden is expected to evoke the memories of the U.S. Capitol riot a year ago in more forcefully aligning himself with the voting rights effort.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke before Biden Tuesday, warning that a barrage of laws making it tougher to vote means there is “a danger of becoming accustomed to these laws, a danger of adjusting to these laws as though they are normal.” When asked what he was risking politically by speaking out when there aren’t enough votes to change the rules, he said: “I risk not saying what I believe. That’s what I risk. This is one of those defining moments. It really is. People are going to be judged on where were they before and where were they after the vote. History is going to judge us.”
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