WATCH: Jen Psaki Smacks Down ‘Hilarious’ Criticism That Biden’s Voting Rights Speech Was Too ‘Offensive’

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki smacked down criticisms of President Joe Biden’s voting rights speech from a pair of Republican senators.

Ms. Psaki briefed reporters Wednesday, a day after the president delivered a fiery speech in support of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. She was asked to respond to critiques from two members of the Senate Republican caucus who are blocking those measures.

First, Psaki was asked about criticism from Sen. Mitt Romney, and responded by not just refuting Romney, but also swatting away broader criticisms that the president was too aggressive in the speech:

Q: Senator Romney today basically said — I’ll use the exact quote — that the speech yesterday that the President gave was, quote, “going down the same tragic road taken by President Trump [in] casting [the] doubt on the reliability of American elections.” Does the White House have a response to that?

MS. PSAKI: With all due respect to Senator Romney, I think anyone would note there’s a night-and-day difference between fomenting an insurrection based on lies totally debunked by 80 judges, including Trump-appointed ones, and election authorities across the country and making objective, true statements, which is what the President made yesterday, about the effects of a coordinated nationwide effort to undermine the constitutional right to vote.

I know there has been a lot of claim of the offensive nature of the speech yesterday — which is hilarious on many levels, given how many people sat silently over the last four years for the former president — but I would note that, in our view and the President’s view, what is far more offensive is the effort to suppress people’s basic right to exercise who they want to support and who they want to elect. That’s not a partisan thing.

And that — that was why he gave such a strong speech yesterday.

Psaki was also asked to respond to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s even more strident commentary on the speech, and she obliged:

Q: Can I quickly get your response to Mitch McConnell today, who had some strong words for the President? He called his speech a “rant,” “incoherent,” “profoundly unpresidential.” But he also accused the President of “shouting that 52 senators and millions of Americans are racist unless he gets whatever he wants.”

MS. PSAKI: Well, I know the President was asked about this and said — a version of this, I should say — and he said he considers Mitch McConnell a friend. And that is true. That is why it is even more disappointing that someone who has supported and advocated for voting rights in the past — wrote about in his book, has talked about it publicly — and repeatedly voted for the extension of voting rights protections is on the other side of this argument now.

You know, and I — I think it clearly struck a nerve — the President’s speech yesterday and the Vice President’s remarks. I think there’s evidence of that. But to us and to the President, what is more irresponsible, unbecoming, and divisive is the coordinated effort by far too many Republicans across the country to perpetuate the Big Lie and make it more difficult to vote.

And we have seen evidence of that in 19 states who passed — which passed 34 laws attacking voting rights. That’s why he’s standing up and made the passionate case he made yesterday.

Watch above via The White House.