ABC’s Karl Questions WH Official On Biden’s Unity Efforts: Is He Still Trying to Work With GOP on Voting Rights, or Do You See That as ‘Lost Cause’?

ABC’s Jon Karl asked White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield whether President Joe Biden is still trying to work with Republicans, or if he has written off their cooperation on voting rights.

Bedingfield defended Biden’s criticism of Georgia’s restrictive new voting bill during an interview she gave to ABC’s This Week. As she pivoted towards Biden’s support for election reforms to expand voting rights, Karl said that “one thing that is truly concerning about this is that these are entirely party-line, these are partisan efforts.”

From there, Karl brought up Senator Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) political concerns about eliminating the Senate filibuster in order to allow Democrats to advance their agendas. Karl noted that Biden ran for president on the promise to unite the country, saying “This seems to be a really tough one. Is he going to be able to find a way to get Republicans in Congress on board in a bipartisan effort to deal with how we conduct our elections?”

“Well, this is a question for the Republicans, isn’t it, Jon?” Bedingfield responded.

Karl said that it’s a question for Biden too, asking, “What is his plan to try to bring Republicans on board to this, or are they a lost cause? How does the White House view this?”

Bedingfield reiterated that “that’s a question for [the GOP],” and said, “Are they going to look their constituents in the eye and say ‘I spent my time in Washington trying to make it harder for you to cast your vote?'”

Watch above, via ABC.

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