Biden makes fiery speech in support of killing filibuster

From Atlanta, Georgia, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris evoked the name of Congressman John Lewis in the city 'too busy to hate'

President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on the US Senate to change its rules to allow a simple majority to pass voting rights legislation.

Mr Biden said in Atlanta, Georgia, that Republican-backed state laws threaten democracy – and that he has had enough of it.

"I've been having these quiet conversations the members of Congress for the last two months. I'm tired of being quiet," he said, his voice growing angry.

“The threat to our democracy is so grave, we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote."

Mr Biden was speaking at Morehouse College, after visiting the crypt of Martin Luther King Jr and the church where King was a pastor, Ebenezer Baptist.

Too Busy to Hate

While at the King complex, a lone supporter of Donald Trump waited outside a rope line with a loudspeaker. along with other onlookers and parents of elementary pupils from the adjacent Hope-Hill Elementary School.

The man berated fellow spectators with various conspiracy theories, which they ignored.

Secret Service and Atlanta police had warned the man that he would be arrested if his harassment continued.

But when Mr Biden chose a different exit, the man turned his attention towards the children, walking in single file to meet their waiting parents, calling them "slaves".

"You're a teacher? You should be arrested for child abuse," the unidentified man yelled.

In a page out of the John Lewis handbook, parents and teachers ignored the man, even as he called Dr Anthony Fauci, Mr Biden's leading Covid-19 adviser, a liar and encouraged nearby people to throw their masks away.

Mr Lewis spent his entire life fighting for voting rights, was beaten on the infamous Bloody Sunday and served as Atlanta's Congressman in 17 consecutive terms.

Mr Biden and Ms Harris mentioned the late Mr Lewis in their speeches for which the voting rights legislation is named.

“Let the majority prevail," Mr Biden said. "And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules including getting rid of the filibuster for this."

Mr Biden said former president Donald Trump's false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election sowed chaos and gave cause for Republican-controlled states passing laws to limit voting access.

“The goal of the former president and his allies is to disenfranchise anyone who votes against them,” he said.

In Georgia, for example, Republican Governor Brian Kemp passed a law that makes it illegal to take water to anyone queuing up to vote on Election Day.

"People get tired, they get hungry, and the Bible teaches us to feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty," Mr Biden said.

"The new Georgia law it makes it illegal ... to bring your neighbours and fellow voters food or water while they wait in line to vote.

"What in the hell, heck are we talking about? That's not America. That's what it looks like when they suppress the right to vote."

The Atlanta students, all in masks, cheered and applauded his stance.

Mr Biden has shifted his focus from passing Build Back Better, which appears dead in the water after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he would not support it, to addressing state laws that opponents say will "nationalise" elections, and will dim Democrats’ prospects of keeping control of the House and Senate at midterm elections in November.

Vice President Kamal Harris was just as emotional when addressing the crowd.

"The Constitution of the United States gives the Congress the power to pass legislation, and nowhere, nowhere does the Constitution give a minority the right to unilaterally block legislation," she said before Mr Biden took the stage.

The trip to Atlanta, known as the cradle of the civil rights movement, drew objections from local voting-rights activists, some of whom issued an open letter dismissing it as “an empty gesture without concrete action".

Their primary complaint is that Mr Biden did not make a priority of voting rights months ago, instead of focusing on his now-stalled social spending plan known as Build Back Better.

And eyebrows were raised when Stacey Abrams did not attend his speech, because of what she said was a scheduling conflict.

But Ms Abrams, who recently announced a second run for governor, Tweeted a "thank you" to Mr Biden for "refusing to relent".

The president spoke about a need to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, named after the civil rights congressman who died in 2020, to protect the constitutional right to vote.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has set next Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr Day as a deadline to pass voting legislation or consider revising the rules around the chamber’s filibuster.

Mr Biden evoked the memories of the US Capitol riot a year ago, more forcefully aligning himself with the voting rights effort.

“I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic," he said. "And so the question is, where will the institution of the United States Senate stand?"

Rev Jesse Jackson listens as President Joe Biden speaks about the constitutional right to vote at the Atlanta University Centre Consortium. AFP

A White House official said Mr Biden would support changing the Senate filibuster rules only so far as ensuring the right to vote is defended – a strategy some Democrats have been looking to the president to embrace.

The current rules require 60 votes to advance most legislation including voting rights, a threshold that Senate Democrats cannot meet alone because they only have a 50-50 majority, with Ms Harris to break ties. Republicans unanimously oppose the voting rights measures.

Mr Biden has in the past waded more cautiously into the debate. He is a former long-time senator who largely stands by existing rules but is also under enormous political pressure for a breakthrough. Even with his pressure, it is not clear what practical effect he can have.

Not all Democrats are on board with changing the filibuster rules.

And should the Democrats clear the obstacles to passage of the voting rights laws, it could be too late to counter widespread voting restrictions passed in 19 states after Mr Trump’s 2020 loss and his lies – embraced by many Republicans – that the election was stolen through voter fraud.

Republicans who have fallen in line behind Mr Trump’s election misinformation are promoting efforts to influence future elections by installing sympathetic leaders in local election posts, and by backing for elective office some of those who took part in the riot at the US Capitol a year ago.

Georgia is at the centre of it all, as one of the key battleground states in the 2020 elections.

After the votes were counted and recounted, Mr Trump told the state's head official to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss. The state’s votes nonetheless went to Mr Biden, and both of its Senate seats went to Democrats as well.

Last year, the Republican governor signed a sweeping rewrite of election rules that, among other things, gives the State Election Board new powers to intervene in county election offices and to remove and replace local election officials.

Agencies contributed to this report.