EXCLUSIVE: Republican MP Byron Donalds criticized President Biden on Friday for invoking Jim Crow during his first formal press conference, saying he is “irresponsibly injecting race” into the conversation.
Biden on Thursday, during his first press conference since taking office, made reference to Jim Crow in defending the Democrats’ HR 1 voting reform bill and his efforts to get rid of the obstruction.
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“In 2005, then Senator Biden said: ‘In essence, the obstruction is not about preventing a nominee or a bill; it is about compromise and moderation. That is why the founders put up an unlimited debate. which is about, engendering commitment and moderation, “” Donalds, from Florida, told Fox News.
“Go ahead today and now President Biden is injecting Jim Crow’s race and farce to oppose the obstruction,” said Donalds. “Again and again, Democrats turn to the racial charter to protect them from having to answer for their hypocrisy and radical policies.”
“Jim Crow may mean nothing to President Biden, considering that he joined the segregationists in opposition to the dam and praised racists known as Robert Byrd, but this black spot in our republic is personal to me and many black Americans like me” said Donalds.
Donalds went on to call the elections “the cornerstone of our constitutional republic”.
“Ensuring that the elections take place legally and properly is not racist; it is fair,” Donalds told Fox News, criticizing the HR 1, the For the People Act, as a “direct attack on our Constitution and the sanctity of our electoral system” , while saying that, if passed by law, “it would cause irreparable damage to the future of our republic”.
“The Constitution defines the responsibility for administering the elections, and that power lies with the states, not the federal government,” said Donalds. “Abolishing voter identification laws, ending signature verification and putting into practice taxpayer-funded campaigns is detrimental to every American’s right to a free and fair election – and President Biden’s damaging rhetoric cannot escape that fact.”
Donalds’ comments came after Biden summoned Jim Crow to talk about the obstruction and proposed reforms to voting laws in states across the country.
Biden said on Thursday that he “strongly supports[s]”reforming the silent obstruction into a” talking “obstruction, in which senators who want to block legislation would have to hold the word by talking nonstop. He cited statistics that there were only 58 motions to break an obstruction from 1917 to 1971, but only in the last yes, there were “five times more”.
Biden said he agreed with former President Obama’s assessment that the obstruction was a “relic of Jim Crow”. He expressed disgust at the actions that states are taking to restrict voting, alluding to new electoral reforms in Georgia that even prohibit giving food and water to voters waiting in line to vote.
Biden was also asked whether he worries that Republicans in states across the country who are proposing legislation to restrict access to voting could cost Democrats control over Congress during the 2022 elections.
“I am convinced that we will be able to prevent this, because it is the most pernicious thing – it makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle,” he said.
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Biden added: “This is gigantic what they are trying to do and it cannot be sustained.”
Biden was referring to Republican lawmakers in battlefield states who are pushing to tighten voting restrictions on postal voting and more in future elections.
Meanwhile, the House passed HR 1, the People’s Law 2021 – which Democrats say will expand voting rights and “clean up corruption” in politics.
According to the Democrats, the bill “would improve access to the ballot box” by creating an automatic electoral register across the country and ensuring that individuals who have served sentences for serious crimes have their full voting rights restored. The project will also expand early voting and improve absentee voting, simplifying voting by mail.
Bryon Donalds, R-Fla. (Marisa Schultz / Fox News)
The legislation also “ensures that American elections are decided by American voters”, increasing federal support for the security of the voting system, specifically with respect to paper ballots, and also increasing supervision of electoral system providers and requiring the “development of a national strategy to protect US democratic institutions.”
The Senate is now considering S.1, which Democrats say is a civil rights bill essential to protect Americans’ right to vote in the face of state legislatures controlled by the Republican Party that introduced bills to tighten restrictions on voting.
“Our movement for equality, our movement for justice was inexorable. But it did not happen on its own, powerful movements and decades of intense political struggles were needed,” said Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., rare committee appearance on Wednesday. “I would like to ask my Republican colleagues, why are you so afraid of democracy?”
Schumer said S.1 would “combat all these voter suppression efforts by restoring critical parts of the Voting Rights Act … making it easier – not more difficult – to vote by automatically registering American voters when they obtain a driver’s license. .. [and] limit dark money and corruption in our policy and more. “
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, in a podcast released on Tuesday, argued that Democrats are trying to use the levers of power to give them a long-term political advantage, despite the fact that they have the smallest majorities so much. in the Chamber and in the Senate.
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McConnell spoke on the conservative podcast “Ruthless”, where he attacked Democrats for their planned bills for the elections, HR1 and S.1; attempts to add new states to the Union; efforts to remove legislative obstruction, and more.
“They want to change the system to benefit and they want to have instead of an arbitrator, they want the FEC to be a promoter,” said McConnell, R-Ky., Referring to HR.1 and S.1.
“So it is nothing more than trying to help Democrats win the elections forever,” he added.
Fox News Marisa Schultz, Tyler Olson and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.