With Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., essentially canceling President Biden's chances to pass Build Back Better, the Democrats have shifted to establishing a federal election framework, which Republicans say is little more than an "election takeover scheme."
Like other Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Church Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Pelosi also tied the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to the need for federal election reform to "protect our Constitution and our democracy."
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"What the Republicans are doing across the country is really a legislative continuation of what they did on Jan. 6, which is to undermine our democracy, to undermine the integrity of our elections, to undermine the voting power, which is the essence of a democracy," Pelosi said on CBS News’ "Face the Nation."
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"There is no more important bill that enables us to support and defend the Constitution of the United States," she continued. "They are not only suppressing the vote, they are nullifying elections, saying, ‘Well it doesn't matter who gets more votes, it matters who the three people we appoint to analyze that, what they decide.’ We cannot let that happen. … This legislation is the most important, and we have to keep working in order to get the job done."
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Pelosi’s remarks repeated those of several Democrats who used the Capitol riot anniversary to push for federal voting reform.
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Harris said in her speech to the nation on Thursday that the "American spirit is being tested" and that "we must pass the voting rights bills that are now before the Senate" in order to "secure and strengthen our democracy."
Clyburn said on "Fox News Sunday" that tying voting rights legislation to the Jan. 6 attack is appropriate because elected officials swore an oath to protect the U.S. Constitution against any "domestic terrorists among us."
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"That oath says, against all enemies foreign and domestic, a recognition of the fact that there will be times in our development when we have to deal with the enemy from within," he said. "That is the recognition that there will be times or could be when we will have domestic terrorists among us."
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Schumer called Jan. 6 a "symptom of a broader illness – an effort to delegitimize our election process" and has repeatedly suggested that Democrats would find ways to get rid of the filibuster if Republicans continue to try and block debate on the voting rights bill.
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