“The president will be active in voting issues, not only in Washington, but also in the states, and this is an example of how he is doing just that,” said the official.
The Associated Press was the first to report on the next meeting, which an adviser to Abrams later confirmed to CNN.
Abrams is widely seen as a Democratic Party star, having come out of his 2018 loss to governor to found the electoral organization Fair Fight. In 2019, she became the first black woman to make the Democrats’ official response in a State of the Union address and was among the candidates considered potential candidates for Biden.
She has devoted years to expanding the electorate and boosting voter turnout in Georgia, which has gone red for decades. The state went to Biden in the 2020 elections, making him the first Democratic candidate in 28 years to beat Georgia.
The struggle for access to voting in the state only continued after the election. A key committee of the Republican-controlled Georgia Legislative Assembly made a surprise move on Wednesday and began work on a massive new bill that would give the state broad powers over local electoral officials, would set limits on early voting. weekend and would add voter identification requirements for absentee ballots.
Biden is traveling to Atlanta after the murder of eight people – including six Asian women, including four South Koreans – rocked the city amid growing concerns across the country about anti-Asian violence during the coronavirus pandemic.
In light of Tuesday’s shootings, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have postponed the political part of their trip and will meet with Asian American leaders and visit the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the White House.
Rep. Bee Nguyen of the state of Georgia will be meeting, among others, with Biden and Harris on Friday to discuss recent shootings at a spa in the Atlanta metropolitan area, telling CNN that she will attend the meeting with the mayor. from Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, other state and Asian American representatives from the Pacific Islander community leaders.
Among the issues they will raise is the concern that the shootings are “taken seriously” and considered a hate crime against Asians, and not be judged as the suspect having a “bad day”, said Nguyen. Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office faced criticism for saying the suspect had “a very bad day”.
This story has been updated with more details and basic information.
CNN’s Annie Grayer, Faith Karimi, Betsy Klein, Jamiel Lynch, Amara Walker, Fredreka Schouten and Kelly Mena contributed to this report.
