the year is 2006, republican president george w. bush is signing an extension of the voting rights act. staying there behind him is missouri senator roy blunt who now thinks voting rites is a partisan issue. that 25-year extension of the voting rights act was so bipartisan that both the majority and the minority leader were there for the signing. oh, okay, right here next to hillary clinton is senator lindsey graham before he thought that protecting voting rights was a power grab. fast forward to today when the senator who will go into the history books as little more than a caddy to the disgraced twice impeached former president said this. as to voting rights itself, i think this is the most height manufactured issue in a long time. let s just be clear. when we talk about voting rights regulation, we talk a lot about what president biden should do, what majority leader chuck
it wasn t just long. it was historically epically long and what the president really set out to do was one push back on his critics, talk about sort of what he wanted to do in his next year and the mistakes he perceived he made but out there to prove something. think about the questions he got from the conservatives about whether or not he s mentally fit, whether or not he s someone that can stand up for the job. we all watched him for an hour and 50 some odd minutes stand up there, get frustrated at times and get genuinely sad about the pandemic but not really lose his stride. not insult people. not lash out as we ve seen with the former president. the other thing that sticks with me is in someways he felt like an american trying to connect with other america caps that are frankly exhausted living through a pandemic and feeling glom me. i think that was part of the emotional connection. it was interesting to hear him talk about voting rites in particular as you talked about the idea t
on pbs and michael beschloss, host of fireside history on peacock and christina greer and adam, executive director of battle born collective and former deputy chief of staff to the great majority leader harry reid. this is a boss panel. so excited to talk to you-all. talk about this press conference. this was two hours of biden speaking. he was literally speaking at the same time joe manchin was being like don t bother. what did the white house from your reporting, what were they trying to get out of this day other than commemorating the one year and is there a belief they won t take no for an answer, they believe they can somehow still win on voting rites? what i m super excited to be joining the msnbc family. i can t wait. per our white house history was the longest presidential news conference in history.
many ways the fact the filibuster is there, many issues that not only democrats care about but arizonians care about won t get to the finish line to the president because of the filibuster and let me go ahead on. people don t have access to the ballot box. we can advocate for those legislation that improves people s lives. indeed. let me play a couple of your fellow democrats in the state. this is secretary of state katie hobbs and navajho nation talking about voting rites. every senator who voted against advancing voting rights in the senate should be held accountable for that including our senator. we came out in large numbers for both the senators and voting rights, as you know is very important to indigenous peoples and the navajo nation.
good to see you. president biden going after republicans today after denouncing trump in his january 6th speech today. do you think this is the start of a long term shift of how biden approaches a party that s refusing to work with him and embracing whole sale lies? yeah, i think he should for absolute sure on the in terms of voting rights and the big lie. you know, when he gave his speech on thursday, there were people who said well, you know, i don t know if he ll continue this. i don t know how you can go down to atlanta and talk about voting rights and not talk about the big lie and what donald trump has been doing because all of these changes in voting laws are predicated on the big lie. this notion somehow the elections were fraudulent and therefore we need to restrict voting rites and give legislatures the right to overrule the actions of local election boards, this is all predicated. it s all of one piece.