Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky) dismissed President Joe Biden’s speech on voting rights in Pennsylvania on Tuesday as “utter nonsense.”
During his speech at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, President Biden said the fight over voting laws is the “most significant test to our democracy since the Civil War.”
“What utter nonsense. It would be laugh-out-loud funny if it wasn’t so completely and totally irresponsible,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “This is our new president who promised to lower the temperature, bring America back together and rebuild a civil society where we can dialogue as fellow citizens.”
After the November 2020 elections Republican controlled legislatures across the country are passing new laws restricting access to the vote based on the ‘big lie’ pushed by Donald Trump and his allies.
According to the Brennan Center, 17 states so far have enacted 28 new laws that restricts access to the vote, and there’s more to come. At least 61 bills with restrictive provisions are currently moving through 18 state legislatures. 31 have passed at least one chamber, while another 30 have had some sort of committee action.
McConnell’s remarks come as Texas House Democrats are in Washington after they left their state on Tuesday in a last ditched effort to block a new Republican led restrictive bill from becoming law. Democrats say the new bill will add new restrictions to the state’s already very restrictive laws governing absentee voting.
“Democrats have pulled out the same Chicken Little playbook that failed in Georgia. The same big lies,” McConnell said. “The big lies and the fake outrage failed in Georgia. The big lies and fake outrage failed here in the Senate last month. They will fail in Texas.”
Currently, the Texas House Democrats plan to remain out of the state until August 6, when the special session expires. They are using the time to meet with Democrats in Congress, pushing them on changing the filibuster to pass voting reform.
