Biden Slams Trump's 'Big Lie'

President delivers address on voting rights
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 13, 2021 4:48 PM CDT
Biden Slams Trump's 'Big Lie'
President Biden talks with the Rev. Al Sharpton after he spoke at the National Constitution Center, Tuesday, July 13, 2021, in Philadelphia.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

"We’re facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War," President Biden warned in a speech to supporters in Philadelphia Tuesday. The president, speaking at the National Constitution Center, spoke out against GOP-led efforts to restrict voting rights, linking them to Donald Trump's "Big Lie" about the 2020 election being "stolen" from him, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Biden said no other election has been held under such tight scrutiny. "In America, if you lose, you accept the results," Biden said, per the Hill. "You follow the Constitution, you try again. You don't call facts 'fake' and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you're unhappy. That's not statesmanship, that's selfishness."

The president described efforts to restrict access to voting as "un-American." "The 21st Century Jim Crow assault is real, it’s unrelenting, and we’re going to challenge it vigorously," he said. Biden said passing new federal voting rights legislation is a "national imperative," but he didn't raise the possibility of scrapping the filibuster in order to pass the For the People Act, the AP reports. Instead, he said he would launch a nationwide campaign to inform voters of rule changes before next year's midterm elections. Biden also urged Republicans to support voting rights legislation, asking them to "stand up for God’s sake and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election and the sacred right to vote." RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez accused Biden of attacking "commonsense election integrity efforts." (More President Biden stories.)

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