Biden Claims Trump and Allies Want ‘The Kind of Power You See in Totalitarian States’
President Joe Biden delivered a speech on voting rights in Atlanta on Tuesday and warned that Donald Trump and his loyalists seek to “disenfranchise anyone who votes against them.”
Biden was stumping for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. The House passed the former bill in August, but it is bogged down in the Senate where it lacks filibuster-proof majority.
If passed, the bills would amount to the largest overhaul of voting rights and elections since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“The former president and allies pursued, threatened, and intimidated state and local election officials,” said Biden, who noted that Trump unsuccessfully tried to get Georgia’s top elections official to fabricate the votes necessary to put him over the top in the state.
“He failed because of the courageous officials – Democrats, Republicans – who did their duty and upheld the law,” the president continued.
Biden then took aim at an elections law enacted by Georgia last year, which was passed in response to Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. The law restricts voting access and places more power in the hands of the Republican governor and Republican state legislature when it comes to elections.
“With this new law in Georgia, his loyalists will be placed in charge of state elections,” Biden said. “What is that gonna mean? Well, the chances for chaos and subversion are even greater, as partisans seek the results they want no matter what the voters have said. No matter what the count.”
Biden said the effort and those like it in other states is meant to turn votes into a “mere suggestion.” As he has done before, he called it “Jim Crow 2.0.”
“The goal of the former president and his allies is to disenfranchise anyone who votes against them,” the president continued. “Simple as that. The facts won’t matter. Your vote won’t matter. They’ll just decide what they want, and then do it. That’s the kind of power you see in totalitarian states,” he claimed. “Not in democracies. We must be vigilant. And the world is watching.”
He added, “Today we call on Congress to get done what history will judge. Pass the Freedom to Vote Act! Pass it now!”
Watch above via CNN.
