This outcome was widely expected going into Wednesday’s proceedings. During a nearly two-hour press conference, held before the end of Senate deliberations, Biden addressed the expected aftermath of voting rights legislation failing. Suggesting a strategy of breaking up the defeated bill into smaller portions, Biden argued, “I think there are a number of things we can do, but I also think we will be able to get significant pieces of the legislation — if we don’t get it all now — to build to get it so that we get a big chunk of the John Lewis legislation, as well as the fair elections.”
Earlier in the news conference, however, Biden seemed resigned to the idea that at least some voter suppression efforts would remain in place. “No matter how hard they make it for minorities to vote,” the president argued, “I think you’re going to see them willing to stand in line and defy the attempt to keep them from being able to vote.” Such sentiments, which echo earlier calls from the White House for Democrats to “out-organize” voter suppression, drew anger from voting rights advocates last year.
During one key exchange, a reporter asserted to Biden that many Black voters “feel as though you are not fighting hard enough for them and their priorities” before asking the president “what do you say to these Black voters who say that you do not have their backs, as you promised on the campaign trail?”
Biden, in a long response, both defended his track record of supporting the Black community and voting rights in particular. “That’s what got me involved in politics in the first place,” Biden said.
“I have not been out in the community nearly enough,” the president added.
