Biden gives an angry cry for action on voting rights but stops short of calling for filibuster reform

At one point, accusing Republicans of shirking truth and responsibility for upholding the Constitution, he bellowed: “Have you no shame?”

It was one of the fieriest speeches of Biden’s presidency to date, reflecting the fury he and fellow Democrats have cultivated as Republicans follow Trump’s lead in denying the election results.

He called efforts to call the election in question “dark” and “sinister” on Tuesday, saying they reflected “human nature at its worst.”

Biden began his speech in Philadelphia by recounting the stories of Americans who voted in the last election, lauding them for their efforts to cast their ballots amid the Covid-19 pandemic. He noted that the last election had the most votes cast in any election in American history.

But he quickly turned his focus to the attacks on the 2020 election process, calling it the most scrutinized in American history. He alluded to Trump’s complaints about the election results, saying those who would deny the election result are simply denying facts.

“The Big Lie is just that: A big lie,” Biden said.

Since the November election, state lawmakers have enacted 28 laws in 17 states that restrict ballot access, according to a June tally by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

Biden decried Republican obstruction to a sweeping election reform bill that Democrats argue is a necessary counter to state-level efforts to restrict voting access. The President stressed that the work to pass that legislation, the For the People Act, as well as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

The President and his team had repeatedly previewed a major push on voting rights after Republicans in the US Senate blocked a sweeping election reform bill last month, but it remains unclear how much he can accomplish.

Passing new voting legislation in Congress will almost certainly require altering filibuster rules, since Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate isn’t enough to overcome GOP opposition — and it’s not clear Democrat have the votes to pass a bill anyway.

And Biden has said his efforts must go beyond simply limiting dark money in politics or making Election Day a federal holiday — two items included in the major bill blocked by Republicans last month. He said in June that Democratic efforts must expand to limit the ability of election boards to toss out results or replace officials based on ideology.

But with no clear legislative path in sight, the administration has announced a $25 million expansion of a voting rights effort spearheaded by the Democratic National Committee — though civil rights advocates have pushed the President to do more.

Interactive: America’s long history of Black voter suppression

The high court upheld two provisions of an Arizona voting law. The first provision says in-person ballots cast at the wrong precinct on Election Day must be wholly discarded. Another provision restricts a practice known as “ballot collection,” requiring that only family caregivers, mail carriers and election officials can deliver another person’s completed ballot to a polling place.

“In a span of just eight years, the Court has now done severe damage to two of the most important provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — a law that took years of struggle and strife to secure,” Biden said in a statement reacting to the decision. “After all we have been through to deliver the promise of this Nation to all Americans, we should be fully enforcing voting rights laws, not weakening them.”

This is a breaking story and will be updated.