Biden heads to Atlanta to push changes to the Senate filibuster as activists boycott speech

lakista Speller

4 years ago

President Joe Biden will push the Senate on Tuesday to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation in a speech in Atlanta that some activists will boycott to protest the administration’s lack of action on the issue.

Stacey Abrams, a major advocate for voting rights and a gubernatorial candidate, is one who will not be at Biden’s event but it’s because of a ‘conflict,’ according to her aides.

Biden, who will be accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, will tout ‘democracy over autocracy’ in a hard-hitting speech designed to pressure senators into action.

‘The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation. Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice?,’ he will say, according to excerpts released from the White House.

‘I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic. And so the question is where will the institution of United States Senate stand?,’ Biden will ask.

President Joe Biden will push the Senate to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation in a speech in Atlanta

Vice President Kamala Harris will accompany Biden to his Georgia events

In order for Senate rules to be changed, Biden needs all 50 of his Democratic senators on board. Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have raised concerns about eliminating the filibuster, which removes the 60-vote threshold to advance legislation.

Five U.S. senators will join the president on the trip but not Manchin or Sinema.

Stacey Abrams, a major advocate for voting rights and a gubernatorial candidate, is one who will not be at Biden’s event but it’s because of a ‘conflict,’ according to her aides

Biden’s travel to Georgia, which many Democrats consider ‘ground zero’ for voter suppression efforts, comes as Republican senators are vowing to filibuster both pieces of voting rights legislation, arguing elections are state issues, not federal ones.

And while Biden, who served 36 years in the Senate, will make it clear he only supports a carve out for the filibuster for voting rights legislation, Republicans argue it could be extended to other legislation, thereby diminishing its power.

Additionally, not all Democrats are happy with Biden’s speech. A group of local voting and civil rights leaders are boycotting the president’s event in frustration with the lack of action on voting rights, arguing the Biden administration is more concerned about optics than results.

VOTING RIGHTS GROUPS BOYCOTTING EVENT

The Asian American Advocacy Fund

Atlanta North Georgia Labor Council

Black Voters Matter Fund

GALEO Impact Fund

New Georgia Project Action Fund

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams will miss event

Ahead of the trip, the groups asked Biden not to come to the state without a plan to pass voting rights legislation and some are now boycotting the president’s event.

‘We’re beyond speeches. We’re beyond events,’ LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter told reporters Monday in a briefing. ‘What we are demanding is federal legislation.’

The Asian American Advocacy Fund, Black Voters Matter Action Fund, GALEO Impact Fund, Inc., New Georgia Project Action Fund and Black Voters Matter announced ahead of Biden’s visit that they will not attend.

Abrams’ campaign did not detail the ‘conflict’ that is causing her to miss the president’s speech. Her voting rights advocacy worked helped Biden win the state of Georgia in the 2020 election.

The White House, in response to the boycotss, blasted out a list of civil rights leaders attending the speech, including high-profile names like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Derrick Johnson, People for the American Way President Ben Jealous, and Fighting for Our Vote’s Leah Daughtry.

Bernice King, chief executive at the King Center and daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., will meet with the president during his trip and be at his speech but says she is frustrated by the lack of progress on federal legislation.

‘Just as my father went to the White House with (President Lyndon B.) Johnson and then went to the streets in Selma, Alabama, I’m with the whole process,’ she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

GEORGIA’S ELECTION LAW: AN OVERHAUL OF THE VOTE

In March, Republicans in the Georgia state legislature passed a bill transforming votes across the state in the wake of the 2020 Presidential election.

‘The facts are this new law will expand voting access in the Peach State,’ Governor Brian Kemp said at the time, but Democrats and critics have suggested this is not the case.

Biden narrowly won Georgia by a margin of 0.23 per cent and 11,779 votes. The count in the state lasted for days after the ballots closed on November 3 and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced an audit by hand on November 11.

The changes have sparked lawsuits, pressure on big businesses and prompted Major League Baseball to move the 2021 All Star Game away from Atlanta in protest.

The changes signed into law in March include:

A Georgia state driver’s license number, ID card number, date of birth and the last four digits of a social security number or another approved form of identification must be printed on the outside of an absentee ballot.
Drop boxes are limited to one per every 100,000 active registered voters and are only accessible during advanced voting.
Voters have to request a mail-in ballot 11 days before the election, instead of four days before in 2020.
Absentee ballots must be issued 25 days before a federal primary, general election or special election or 22 days before a municipal general election or primary.
Return of absentee ballots must be verified by 5pm on the day after the election.
Ballots must be printed in black and white ink on security paper.
Two early-voting periods are required on a Saturday for each county, with optional voting on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hours can be extended from 7am to 7pm.
Non-poll workers are banned from soliciting signatures or votes from people waiting on line.
Sharing or the display of campaign materials is also restricted at voting booths.
Offering food, drink, money of gifts to voters on line is prohibited.
Training under oath will be provided for poll watchers.
Voting ‘buses’ or mobile/movable booths will be used only in an emergency.
The State Election Board, under certain conditions, would be able to replace local election superintendents.
Secretary of State will no longer serve as chair of the State Election Board.

CRITICISM OF GEORGIA’S ELECTION LAWS

Democrats and voting rights advocates say the new rules are meant to suppress turnout after Donald Trump, Republicans and their supporters pushed election fraud claims and reduced trust in the process.
Critics suggest too much power is being given to the State Election Board and the demotion of the secretary of state was revenge for Brad Raffensperger refusing Trump’s request to overturn the election results.
Stricter ID laws will make it harder for certain groups – including minorities, the poor, and people with disabilities – to cast their votes.
Less mobile forms of voting will make it more difficult for Georgians with disabilities.
Critics say the reduction of drop boxes will negatively impact turnout in areas that are more populous and lean Democrat.
The law banning people from handing out food or water on lines criminalizes people who help voters forced to wait on longer lines with mail-in ballots restricted, critics say. But self-service water is available if it is not attended.

Biden and Harris will lay wreaths at the crypt where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are interred in Atlanta

Biden and Harris will also visit the history Ebenezer Baptist Church, where John Lewis had his funeral in 2020 (above)

Biden will give his remarks amid an historic backdrop for black Americans, the Atlanta University Center Consortium, which consists of four historically black colleges.

Harris, the nation’s first black vice president and the lead advocate on voting rights issues for the administration, will be at his side.

Biden’s travel to the home state of civil rights icons the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis is deeply symbolic. Georgia was also ground zero in the 2020 presidential election, where Donald Trump falsely claimed Democrats stole votes to hand Biden a victory there.

The state also has two competitive races this fall: Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is in a tough re-election bid. Abrams is making a second attempt to become governor.

Republicans are hopeful they can win back control of the House in the upcoming election. The party of the sitting president traditionally loses seats in the midterm election. The Senate will be a tougher slog.

Before Biden and Harris speak, they will lay a wreath at the crypt of Martin Luther King Jr. and meet with members of the King family.

They also will visit the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock is a pastor. King and Lewis had their funerals there.

Warnock said Biden’s speech will be about the assault on democracy.

‘He understands that the democracy itself is imperiled by this all out assault that we’ve been witnessing by state legislatures all across the country, and this is a moral moment. Everybody must show up,’ Warnock told reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday night.

He and his fellow Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff will be with Biden in Georgia. It the victory of the two men in a pair of January 2021 special elections that gave Democrats control of the Senate.

But after the 2020 election, Georgia was one of many Republican-controlled states that passed new voting rules.

Democrats and their allies have expressed concern about the slew of state legislation, which they claim will make it harder for minorities and disadvantaged groups to votes.

They note this…