White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki cheerfully set a Fox News straight who complained that President Joe Biden isn’t being nice enough to Republicans who oppose voting rights protections.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) said yesterday that she would not support suspending the filibuster in order to get voting rights bills through the Senate, even though she claimed to support the bill to limit gerrymandering, make voting easier, and tighten control of “dark money” contributions.
Related: Donald Trump begs supporters to “rise up” just before anniversary of Capitol Insurrection
Republicans oppose the bill – voter suppression laws often target Black voters, who tend to vote for Democrats – and earlier this week Biden pled with senators who oppose the bill.
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“Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?” he said during a speech in Georgia, referring to Alabama’s mid-20th century segregationist governor. “Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”
Today at the White House press briefing, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy was incensed that Biden would insult politicians who oppose voting rights.
“As you talked about a year ago and working with Republicans, now [Biden] is talking about Republicans that don’t agree with voting rights, he’s describing them as George Wallace, Bull Connor, and Jefferson Davis,” Doocy whined. “What happened to the guy who, when he was elected said, ‘To make progress me must stop treating our opponents as our enemy’?”
“I think everybody listening to that speech who’s speaking on the level, as my mother would say,” Psaki responded, smiling, “would note that he was not comparing them as humans, he was comparing the choice to those figures in history and where they’re going to position themselves, as they determine whether they’re going to support the fundamental right to vote or not.”
Fox News' Peter Doocy admits there are "Republicans that don't agree with voting rights."pic.twitter.com/Bmhr5zZvuh
— David Badash (@davidbadash) January 14, 2022
