Civil rights leaders were pleased with President Joe Biden's call on Tuesday to change Senate filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation, but insist they will not be satisfied until a bill is passed.
"We are tired of being quiet," Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, told CNN at Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth home in Atlanta, where he and others at the forefront of the voting rights fight gathered following the President's speech.Civil rights leaders have urged Biden to take action on two voting rights bills that have stalled in the Senate, while Republican-led states have moved to enact restrictive voting laws that have raised the stakes.
So while Biden threw his full support behind changing the rules on Tuesday, the continued pressure from key activists and groups underscores the risks the President and his party face if they fail to advance voting rights legislation before the crucial midterm elections, let alone before Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's deadline of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is less than a week away.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson also told CNN the President's speech was crucial."The President, of course, has a stake in the Voting Rights Act because he cannot win without it. ... The stakes are very high in this situation," Jackson said.Biden on Tuesday said he was tired of behind-the-scenes discussions in Washington."I've been having these quiet conversations with members of Congress for the last two months.
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