President Biden: “...we are committed to doing everything we can to protect the sacred right to vote...”
Fix Our Senate Spokesman Eli Zupnick: “We cannot talk about protecting voting rights without discussing eliminating the filibuster—the two are inextricably linked...the reality is that it’s going to take legislation to get that done.”
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris spoke at separate events about the necessity to protect the right to vote and defend against attacks by Republican state legislatures. Vice President Harris, who is leading the White House’s voting rights efforts, announced the expansion of the Democratic National Committee’s “I Will Vote” campaign, while President Biden met with civil rights groups to talk privately about the threat of voter suppression across the country.
Fix Our Senate Spokesman Eli Zupnick made the following statement:
“We cannot talk about protecting voting rights without discussing eliminating the filibuster and passing strong legislation—they are inextricably linked. Sen. McConnell has made it clear that he’s never going to allow ten Republicans to stand with Democrats on voting rights, and his filibuster of a vote to simply begin debate of the For the People Act should be sufficient evidence that now is the time to act. Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris made one thing clear—we cannot continue allowing the Jim Crow filibuster to obstruct our fundamental right to vote. But the reality is that it’s going to take legislation to get that done. Senate Democrats must once again put voting rights on the floor and remove the Jim Crow filibuster as a roadblock to progress."
“...we are committed to doing everything we can to protect the sacred right to vote...,” President Joe Biden tweeted.
“Our vote matters. Your voice matters,” Vice President Harris said. “And we are going to fight to make sure that all the people's voices are heard.”
“Well, one of our concerns is that the President use the bully pulpit of the White House and his own persuasiveness to deal with...members of the Senate and have an open discussion around a workaround in terms of the filibuster,” Rev. Al Sharpton, who was one of the eight people invited to today’s Biden/Harris meeting, said on MSNBC this morning. “We cannot in this time, and I do not think this President wants history to say, during his presidency, there was the continued weakening of voting rights for people that put him and Vice President Harris in office,”