President Joe Biden stated that he felt “insulted” by Tuesday’s question from a reporter asking if he felt the same way about Stacey Abrams’s decision to skip his speech on voting rights in Georgia. “Any thoughts about Stacey Abrams skipping today’s speech, sir?” Are you offended that she is skipping your speech? A reporter questioned the White House before Biden traveled to Atlanta.
Biden smiled and said, “I’m insulted that you asked the question.” “I spoke with Stacey this morning. They have a wonderful relationship. We got our scheduling mixed up. I spoke with her this morning. Everything is fine, we’re all on the exact same page.”
Abrams is running for Georgia governorship in 2022. She has made voting issues a keystone of her political platform. Her decision to skip the address because of a scheduling conflict raised eyebrows.
Skeptics such as Joe Scarborough from MSNBC thought she was thinking about her political fortunes due to Biden’s low poll numbers in Georgia and nationally. Scarborough stated on “Morning Joe” that “This event is custom-made to Stacy Abrams. She obviously doesn’t wish to be on the same platform as Joe Biden.”
Biden and Kamala Harris, Vice President Kamala Harris, are pushing for a comprehensive federal election overhaul in Georgia during their visit. But it’s not just Abrams who isn’t showing up. Other progressive Georgia voting rights organizations are also protesting the speech. One former president of the NAACP stated to the New York Times, “Democrats need more action than talk.”
We don’t need more photo ops. We need to take action and that is the John Lewis Voting Rights Act as well as Freedom to Vote Act. And we need it immediately,” James Woodall stated.
Biden supports a carve-out of the filibuster. This creates a threshold of 60 votes to move a bill to a vote in order to pass voting legislation. After previously opposing the “nuclear alternative” in the minority, some Senate Democrats want to abolish the filibuster completely.
Biden will give his remarks Tuesday at the Atlanta University Center Consortium. It is located on the campus of Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Morehouse College. An indication of his remarks suggests that he will refer to last year’s Capitol Riot in encouraging Republicans to support federal election laws. This is something conservatives consider unconstitutional.
