Alice Barrett has logged in at 2023-12-28 16:28:23
Alice Barrett has logged in at 2023-12-28 16:28:23

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ATLANTA — President Biden returned to Georgia on Sunday and used a speech commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to reiterate some of the themes of his 2020 campaign in a possible preview of 2024, which will mark his first visit to the state in more than a year marked year.

Although the visit was not a political event and was intended to commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend, it was an important moment for Biden, who avoided Georgia during the midterm elections and the hard-fought December runoff that ultimately went ahead Senator Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) for a full six-year term of the Senate.

The speech came amid the political fallout from the discovery of classified documents at Biden’s DC think tank and at his personal residence in Wilmington, Delaware. On Saturday, Biden’s attorney said five additional pages of classified markings were discovered at the president’s home in Wilmington.

In December, Georgia drew further attention when Biden proposed moving the southern swing state up the 2024 Democratic presidential election calendar to make it one of a few early nominating contests ahead of Super Tuesday on March 7. The state was key to Biden’s 2020 victory, where strong turnout — particularly among black voters — helped him win the traditionally Republican state by fewer than 12,000 votes.

But Georgia officials have cast doubt on Biden’s plan, leaving it unclear whether it will materialize.

While Biden spoke lavishly about King’s legacy and hailed the civil rights leader as one of his two heroes, the President also revisited some of the themes of his 2020 campaign, speaking about the tremendous work the country still needs to do in protecting democracy, voting rights and the economy has justice in a possible preview of the troubles that could propel a presidential bid in 2024.

Biden returned to a common refrain – that there is a struggle to “redeem the soul of America” ​​- while warning of an existential struggle between democracy and autocracy.

“At this tipping point, we know there is still much work for us to do to move forward in the areas of economic justice, civil rights, voting rights and protecting our democracy,” Biden said. “This is the time to make decisions and make direct decisions that we have. Are we a people who prefer democracy to autocracy?”

Biden delivered the address as a sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the country’s most famous black church, where King once preached. He spoke at the invitation of Warnock, who has led the Church for more than 15 years.

Biden’s speech also marked the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend, which commemorates the civil rights leader who spurred the passage of two landmark bills: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Biden is also scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the National Action Network’s annual MLK breakfast on Monday.

The President last visited Georgia a little over a year ago to deliver a major speech on electoral law. In that speech, Biden said the Senate should change its rules “however they need to be changed” to pass a voting rights bill by filibuster spin-off that would allow Democrats to pass the bill by 50 votes instead of 60, which would have required Republican support.

That speech — in which Biden linked congressional Republicans to Jim Crow-era legislation restricting the right to vote — angered Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), misguided and under his office. “

Congress failed to act on this legislation, in large part due to opposition from Sens. Joe Manchin III (DW.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) to removing the filibuster. (Sinema was a Democrat who has since said she is changing her party affiliation to independent.)

The lack of action on suffrage after repeated promises to act has frustrated civil rights activists and black voters in Georgia, where Republican lawmakers passed state legislation that suffrage advocates and faith leaders warned will dramatically stifle minority turnout. Now that Republicans control the House of Representatives, national voting rights measures are even less likely.

Georgia has proven to be an extraordinarily important state for Biden. Not only has it helped propel him into the presidency — and will likely play a key role in that if he runs as expected in 2024 — but electing two Democratic senators there has also allowed him to win the Senate majority to retain his entire first term.

Both Warnock and Senator Jon Ossoff were elected there in 2020, and Warnock’s victory this fall over Republican Herschel Walker gave Democrats 51 seats in the 100-seat Senate. Though still a slim majority, the extra seat gives Democrats some breathing room on legislative proposals and presidential confirmations.

Warnock also spoke Sunday, touting many of Democrats’ greatest achievements, including the $700 billion Health, Taxes and Climate Act known as the Inflation Reduction Act; the bipartisan Infrastructure Act; and a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act capping insulin costs for seniors at $35 per month.

“This, my friends, is God’s work, and Georgia had something to do with it,” Warnock said.

Biden, meanwhile, also touted some of his administration’s other achievements – most notably the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black female Supreme Court Justice.

The president quoted Jackson: “It only took a generation from segregation to the United States Supreme Court,” Biden said.