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PHILADELPHIA – President Joe Biden plans to detonate the wave of new Republican-backed electoral law changes on Tuesday as “the most egregious attempts to undermine the integrity of our democracy since the Civil War” in Part 1 of what White House officials say is a sustained effort to assemble a broad coalition to “overcome this anti-American trend.”
Biden, who has faced mounting pressure from Democratic activists and even close allies to make more aggressive use of the presidential megaphone over voting rights, has to argue in a long-promised major speech that the Sustained Republican effort to enact new, stricter election laws is “undemocratic, anti-American and unpatriotic.”
Speaking just steps from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, he plans to tie the new election laws to other historic tactics of denying voters the right to vote, including ballot taxes, literacy tests and voter intimidation tactics by groups like the Ku Klux Klan, a White House official said. And he should single out changes that would threaten independent election administrators in favor of partisan actors as the most serious threat to American democracy.
As the vote itself has become a partisan flashpoint, Biden’s speech will be scrutinized by both parties – perhaps especially by his fellow Democrats. No area can better demonstrate the state of the increasingly difficult truce between Biden and his party’s militant base than the tactical division between them on the issue.
Major progressives, and even some of Biden’s traditional allies, have increasingly publicized their frustration with what they see as Biden’s inaction to advocate for federal legislation to counter changes to the law. Election law led by Republicans.
The White House defends Biden’s efforts on behalf of the For the People Act and says he will seek its passage again on Tuesday. But officials have been careful about how he uses his political capital, seeing better use in mobilizing Democrats to bring the franchise to the fore in next year’s midterm elections.
“People still don’t give President Biden the credit for being strategic and knowing exactly what to do, how to do it and when to do it,” White House Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond said in an interview.
Many Democrats say voting rights are urgent in the short term, but don’t believe that view holds sway in the White House, where Biden has a long-term view.
“What we stressed to the president is that we are back to the wall,” Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told reporters. “We need to have legislation. We need to make the president use his voice, use his influence, use his power.”
Progressive groups have been more openly critical, demanding that Biden use his bully chair not to work on electoral victories next fall, but to now advocate for changing Senate rules on filibuster and the adoption of the For the People Act.
“I don’t think the # 1 crisis this country is facing right now is our roads and our bridges. I think the # 1 crisis the country is facing right now is the rise of fascism and an attack. direct against democracy, ”said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a grassroots progressive organization.
Levin said Biden must offer more than just a warning about what’s at stake and a “fleeting endorsement” of the For the People Act, calling for the “launch of a White House-led campaign to rally public opinion public to this popular idea. “
Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-largest Democrat in the House, issued the stern warning by calling on Biden to support the filibuster modification.
“We screw up that voting thing and [Raphael] Warnock won’t be in the Senate and we won’t win anything in North Carolina and we won’t stand a chance in Florida, ”Clyburn said in an interview, referring to three Senate battlegrounds in the midterm elections. where he suggested there were fears that black participation could suffer due to the Republican vote changes.
For Biden and his leadership team, the kind of open-court public press activists wanted him to do before a key Senate vote on voting rights last month wasn’t going to displace enough Republican senators to get the vote. final passage, and it could have cost him precious political capital when he needs it to push forward a fragile bipartisan infrastructure package.
Instead, Biden focused on a more doable task: working to secure unanimity within the Democratic caucus – which is hardly a given, as Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va., remained undecided. until the last hours.
Richmond said: “We didn’t have 50 votes before this vote. The president worked on the phone and we had all the Democratic senators. If they want a president who just slaps his chest and talks about the Hot air, they got it in the last president. He’s a president who keeps his head down and gets the job done and tries to get the result we need. “
Administration officials argue that while activists from both parties have focused on the debate, most Americans have not. It’s the least ideological and politically focused audience Biden will address directly on Tuesday and in the months to come.
The goal is to raise the stakes not only in House and Senate races next year, but also in the types of local and state legislative races that ultimately have a bigger impact on voting laws. That’s why, when Biden met with civil rights leaders in the White House on voting matters last week, Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off what Democrats say was an election push. major on the vote.
“Remember this is not just a national election,” Harris said. “It’s also about state and local elections. It’s about who will be your sheriff, your mayor, or a member of your school board – the people who are elected and who then make decisions that have a bearing on them. impact on your daily life. “
She announced an initial investment of $ 25 million from the Democratic National Committee – which the party says is the largest and oldest ever – to register, educate and train voters while combating efforts to suppression of voters at all levels.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in an interview: “I think the president wanted to see what was going to happen in terms of congressional movement on this. But what you’re about to see, this is a dramatic increase in terms of pushing this administration and the Democratic Party to make sure people understand that this is our most sacred right and that it is something worth investing in and to fight. “
A White House official said Biden would call on Tuesday for “a new coalition, made up of lawyers, activists, students, religious leaders, labor leaders and business leaders, to overcome this anti-trend. -american and meet the moment regarding voter turnout and education. “
But some key Democrats fear that a strategy for the midterm election in 16 months will be ineffective if voter suppression tactics continue to cross Republican-led states and counties before then.
Clyburn, whose efforts helped bring the administration to power, is pushing Biden to support Senate filibuster changes that would allow vote-related bills to pass by a simple majority.
“If we do what is necessary to allow people to vote unhindered, we will not have to worry about it, because we will gain a lot in the elections outside the year,” he said. “But if we don’t, we’re going to waste a lot of time in off-year elections. First of all.”
Biden has so far only expressed support for making it harder to mount a filibuster, for example by demanding that senators stay on the ground and speak. Officials would not disclose whether defending this type of change would factor into Biden’s public case. Richmond said Biden speaks regularly with Manchin, among other lawmakers whose support for any major voting changes would be essential.
Even as the White House lays the groundwork for a political fight over voting issues next fall, officials say they are working closely with legislative leaders to find a way forward on another key measure Voting Rights Act that has not yet been fully drafted: a renewal of the Voting Rights Act named after civil rights icon John Lewis.
“Our goal is to get something to this Congress as soon as possible,” said Richmond.
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