Biden Spox Karine Jean-Pierre Rips ‘Un-American’ Texas Voting Restrictions During AF1 Briefing: ‘This Must Stop’
Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ripped voting restrictions currently being attempted by the Texas legislature, linking it to former President Donald Trump’s “lies that led to the assault on our nation’s Capitol on January 6th.”
Ms. Jean-Pierre briefed reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Tulsa, Oklahoma on Tuesday, where she was asked about Texas Senate Bill 7, a set of voting restrictions that Democrats managed to temporarily block over the weekend by denying the Republican majority a quorum.
Jean-Pierre denounced the bill, as well as the larger effort in states to restrict voting rights, telling reporters that “This must stop”:
Q Just one — just one other topic, with regard to the Texas voting restrictions. There are calls from Democrats now for the President and for Congress to — for the U.S. Congress and congressional Democrats to do more to help stop what’s going on there. What’s the White House’s reaction to that?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, just to — just to state a couple of things here. The Texas legislation is part of a concerted attack on our democracy being advanced in statehouses across the country on the basis of the same repeatedly disproven lies that led to the assault on our nation’s Capitol on January 6th.
This must stop. We need to make it easier, not harder, for all eligible voters to register and cast their ballots. We need to move forward, not backwards.
The fact of the matter is that the Texas — Texas legislation would make it harder to vote in a state where it is already too hard for many to vote. Among other restriction provisions, the bill would have restricted the ability to apply for and help others apply for voting by mail, including a provision forcing people with disabilities to identify as such; given expansion permissions to partisan watchers in a way likely to lead to interference with both voters and officials; made it harder for local election officials to open polls at times that work for voters, including on Sunday mornings and at late-night hours that accommodate shift — shift workers.
The President put out a pretty — a statement over the weekend about this, about his thoughts on how — how un-American and un-democratic what we’re seeing across the country and in Texas, in particular, because that was the most recent — recent legislation that came forth. And so, he’ll have more to say in — in short order later today.
Listen above via The White House.
