Biden Takes on Republicans in All-Out Battle for Voting Rights

President Joe Biden was to defy Republicans on Tuesday and back a controversial Senate rule change to force through voting rights reforms that he says are crucial to saving U.S. democracy.

Coming off a powerful speech last week to mark the January 6 anniversary of an attempt by Donald Trump's supporters to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Biden will argue in the Georgia state capital Atlanta that Congress needs to pass laws protecting voter rights.

"The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation," Biden will say, according to an excerpt of the speech distributed by the White House.

"Will we choose democracy over autocracy?" he will ask in Atlanta, a crucible of U.S. civil rights history. "I know where I stand."

It's a high-risk, high-gain issue for Biden, who is set to infuriate Republicans, while also trying to balance the more conservative wing of his party with the increasingly frustrated Black community.

Democrats accuse Republican state legislatures of enacting a spate of local laws restricting the voting rights of minorities and curtailing early voting and mail-in voting in an effort to suppress Democratic support.

However, Republicans describe the Democratic push as an attempt to manipulate the election landscape by switching power to federal authorities. They are unanimous in opposing the two bills up for debate in the Senate.

Ordinarily, that opposition would ensure the bills' death. Democrats have only 50 votes in the evenly split Senate and under the filibuster rule, which requires a supermajority of 60 for many measures to advance, they would need support from 10 Republicans.

Biden has been reluctant to mess with the filibuster, given warnings from Republicans that removing the supermajority requirement will push the Senate into all-out conflict, with no bipartisanship at all.

Suspending the filibuster for a particular issue is possible, but happens so rarely it is dubbed the "nuclear option."

Now, citing the extreme urgency of fixing the U.S. electoral system, Biden "supports changing the Senate rules," a White House official said.

Lifting the filibuster would require unanimous Democratic support. If achieved, that would then allow the party to pass the two voting rights bills with simple majorities.

- Some activists boycott event -

The president travels to Georgia at a time when his approval ratings are stuck in the low 40s and Republicans are predicted to take over Congress in November midterm elections. The White House says Biden feels it's time to go big on a key Democratic ambition.

"He believes the stakes should be raised," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

According to Democrats, bills under consideration would prevent cheating, ranging from partisan drawing of election districts to the use of security measures as a way to dampen voter turnout in pro-Democrat districts.

The laws would also end the potential ability of state authorities to rig results under arcane existing rules.

"We are going right to the belly of the beast, or ground zero, for voter suppression," Cedric Richmond, White House senior adviser, told Politico.

But Biden, already struggling to get his party to pass a major social spending package, is in a delicate situation.

He won't be able to override the filibuster unless every one of his 50 Democrats agrees, raising potential for a humiliating failure. And that comes as some of his closest allies in the Black community are already expressing frustration.

While a large group of lawmakers and members of slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr's family will accompany Biden in Atlanta, other activists are staying away.

Stacey Abrams, Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia and a major leader in the voting battle, said she had a scheduling clash, while a prominent voting-rights coalition has deliberately boycotted the event.

- 'Renaissance' or 'power grab?' -

Speaking on the same stage as Biden will be Kamala Harris, the first Black vice president, who also spoke before Biden at his forceful January 6 speech.

Biden's goal, Psaki said, is to "ensure that January 6 doesn't mark the end of democracy but the beginning of a renaissance."

For Republicans, the picture is inverted.

"They want to silence millions of Americans and take over the Senate so they can take over elections," Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said.

"A power grab," another senior Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham, said.

As for breaking the filibuster, Graham warns that what goes around comes around, with Republicans then freed to suspend the super-majority rule as soon as they regain control of the Senate.

The result, he said, would be the end of bipartisanship, with "wild swings" between "extreme agendas of the left and the right."