the signing caps off a busy week in congress, a compromise from senator joe manchin to protect voting rights gained the support of stacey abrams, but now it could be in trouble, at least based on what senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said. a revised version produced by one of the democrats yesterday, which has been endorsed by stacey abrams, equally unacceptable, totally inappropriate. all enterprise, i think, will oppose that as well. republicans in a number of state legislatures have passed laws that make it more difficult to vote. so where do efforts to protect voting rights stand nationally? and is any bill to protect voting rights dead on arrival as long as the filibuster endures? let s begin tonight with annie karni, white house correspondent for the new york times. annie, good evening. good to see you. thank you for having me. let s start with juneteenth. what s the significance of this in washington?
meaning of signing that legislation on thursday. with regard to how far we still have to go, that s one of the subtexts to the signing juneteenth into law as a federal holiday because with regards to voting rights, democrats and republicans don t seem too much closer on a compromise. former texas congressman beto o rourke. i also hope we hear from the president on this. he has the authority, the biggest microphone in the country, and he can bring this country together and make sure that we understand what s at stake and what we ll have to do to overcome these challenges that we face right now. annie, do we have any sense that the president or anyone in the administration is going to carry this narrative, the next step further and draw the direct connection between recognizing this federal holiday this weekend and moving further in tangible ways toward concrete racial equity in the weeks to come?
negotiation with republicans is soft like the biden that many progressives thought was going to come into office, the old model of biden, the one who wants very badly to be able to say he got something done with republicans. so they re still trying. we will see. at the same time, there s limited time for any of this, and it means that voting rights is not at the top of the list right now for this white house. new york times white house correspondent annie karni, good to see you. thanks very much. thank you. many people are just learning about this holiday marking the defeat of slavery, perhaps you too. well, you re definitely not alone if that s the case. tv shows like atlanta on fx and black-ish on nbc introduced juneteenth to mainstream audiences. black-ish talk about it. look, people are never going to celebrate something they barely even want to admit happened. look, i get that, but at least can we have one day where the country acknowledged it?
so this is something that at this point would have probably happened with a republican or democratic president, but for biden and kamala harris who also signed it in her role as president of the senate, first black woman vice president, people felt the power of that legislation on thursday. with regard to how far we still have to go, that s one of the subtexts to the signing juneteenth into law as a federal holiday because with regards to voting rights, democrats and republicans don t seem too much closer on a compromise. former texas congressman beto o rourke. i also hope we hear from the president on this. he has the authority, the biggest microphone in the country, and he can bring this country together and make sure that we understand what s at stake and what we ll have to do to overcome these challenges that we face right now. annie, do we have any sense
one of the democrats yesterday, which has been endorsed by stacey abrams, equally unacceptable, totally inappropriate. all republicans, i think, will oppose that as well. republicans in a number of state legislatures have passed laws that make it more difficult to vote. so where do efforts to protect voting rights stand nationally? and is any bill to protect voting rights dead on arrival as long as the filibuster endures? let s begin tonight with annie karni, white house correspondent for the new york times. annie, good evening. good to see you. thank you for having me. let s start with juneteenth. what s the significance of this in washington? joe biden on thursday in signing this into law called it he said he s only been president for five months or so, but it will be one of the greatest honors he will have had as president. we haven t had a new federal holiday since ronald reagan signed legislation to make martin luther king day a federal holiday.