Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ripped President Joe Biden’s speech on voting rights, saying it was “set in an alternate universe” and that Biden had promised to bring the U.S. together, not divide it.
McConnell gave a floor speech Wednesday, slamming Biden’s Tuesday speech highlighting the right to vote and the need to “defend democracy” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the speech, Biden called the battle over voting laws the “most significant test to our democracy since the Civil War.”
“Yesterday the President of the United States delivered a speech that was set in an alternate universe. He called these mainstream state laws, these modest integrity measures that are wildly popular with Americans, quote, ‘the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War,'” McConnell said in his floor speech.
“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. That’s the person who is now yelling that mainstream state laws are more dangerous than two World Wars … more dangerous than poll tests and Bull Connor and actual Jim Crow segregation … and somehow analogous to the Civil War,” McConnell continued.
“What nonsense. It would be laugh-out-loud funny if it wasn’t so irresponsible,” he added.
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During the Philadelphia speech, Biden touted the For The People Act, the massive Democratic voting rights bill that was killed in June when Senate Republicans voted unanimously against starting a debate on the legislation. (RELATED: ‘Stand Up, For God’s Sake!’: Biden Slams Republicans In Fiery Speech On Voting Laws)
McConnell has called the For The People Act “Democrats’ transparent plan to tilt every election in America permanently in their favor.” The bill would omit voter ID requirements and expand mail-in voting, among other provisions. (RELATED: Democrats’ Sweeping Voting Bill Fails To Advance In The Senate)
The comments also come as a group of Texas Democrats fled their state on a plane to Washington, D.C., in order to deny a quorum and prevent the passage of a Republican-proposed election integrity bill.