Fresh off his Jan. 6 anniversary speech, the president and his top aides are trying to keep up the momentum for some legislative remedy.
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“We are doubling down, kicking it into another gear, we are going right to the belly of the beast, or ground zero, for voter suppression, voter subversion and obstruction,” said Cedric Richmond, White House senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement.
“It's really about the fact that there's a vote coming up,” said Richmond. “The Senate leader has voiced his plan. We supported his plan, and we're going to use the White House to try to galvanize the votes.”
Biden’s trip to Atlanta comes as voting rights advocates and allied lawmakers have called on him to be more forceful and consistent.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said he hopes that both Biden and Harris will “speak emphatically about the need for filibuster reform” and has made his desire known to the White House. Johnson did not ask the White House for any reassurances, but said he expects Biden to be direct in his comments about the need to change the filibuster.
Biden's speech on the anniversary of Jan. 6, “didn’t pull any punches,” Johnson said. “And I look forward to him doing the same thing on filibuster reform, being just as direct and straightforward and clear in his speech in Atlanta next week, as he was in speaking about the insurrection...and who was who was responsible for it.”
As Biden’s other top agenda item — a massive social spending and climate bill — has stalled out, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said the legislative “vacuum is quickly being filled” by voting rights.
“I don't think there is a Democrat in the country that wanted Build Back Better to pass by Christmas more than I did,” Casey said. “But the primacy of voting rights now has to supersede everything else we do. I think we found out toward the end of the year that it's very difficult to have two parallel tracks to two big issues. And sometimes you have to prioritize and you have to sequence.”
Casey described the next push for voting and elections bills “as important a body of work as any of us will ever do.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a White House confidant and the third-ranking House Democrat, took offense to Manchin’s argument that changes to Senate rules should be bipartisan, saying “we just don’t have enough Democrats who are in touch with the history of this country, or they'd stop saying some of this foolishness.”
“I am, as you know, a Black person, descended of people who were given the vote by the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 15th amendment was not a bipartisan vote, it was a single party vote that gave Black people the right to vote,” said Clyburn. “Manchin and others need to stop saying that because that gives me great pain for somebody to imply that the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution is not legitimate because it did not have bipartisan buy-in.”
Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), who has been in touch with the White House ahead of the visit, said she expects Biden to provide specifics about how he plans to move the issue forward.
“I think coming to Atlanta, coming to the 5th Congressional District, I am sitting in the seat that was once held by Congressman John Lewis,” Williams said. “We're the cradle of the civil rights movement. You don't come to Atlanta just for another speech. This is about action.”
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