[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 8, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Voting Rights

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, there is a regrettable and un-
Presidential thread that has been woven throughout the whole Biden 
Presidency. Whenever this President finds himself facing bad headlines, 
he tries to change the subject by fearmongering about civil rights and 
voting rights and pretending we are in the 1950s or sixties.
  Remember early last year when the full impact of the Democrats' 
inflation was coming into focus? That is when President Biden flew to 
Georgia, screamed that Jim Crow was coming back and our democracy was 
on death's doorstep, and compared Republicans--listen to this--to Bull 
Connor and Jefferson Davis. He compared us to Bull Connor and Jefferson 
Davis.
  Well, here he goes again. Last weekend, down in Alabama, the 
President suggested that the right to vote in America is ``under 
assault'' today, on par with Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge 
nearly 60 years ago. Nobody believes this. Nobody seriously believes 
that race relations or voting laws or any of these issues are anywhere 
near--anywhere near--where they were back in the 1960s. This is utter 
nonsense.
  President Biden again referenced the Republican State's voting laws 
that he last year called Jim Crow 2.0, as if all of that hysteria had 
not been completely disproven in the meantime.
  Last November, the exact same Georgia voting law that the Democrats 
called evil and racist and the death knell for democracy created 
record-high turnout, lightning-fast voting lines, and a supermajority 
of African-American voters reporting that the voting experience was--
listen to this--excellent.
  Do you know the share of Black voters in Georgia who described their 
voting experience under the new Republican law as poor? Let me say that 
again. Do you know the share of Black voters in Georgia who described 
their voting experience under the new Republican law as poor? It is 
zero. Zero. President Biden said this law was the second coming of 
segregation, and zero percent of Black voters said they had a poor 
voting experience.
  Ah, but here he goes again with the same lies, the same hysteria. We 
are back in this bizarre, bizarre twilight zone where the President of 
the United States periodically says these utterly absurd, apocalyptic 
things with zero basis in reality, and everybody just carries on like 
it really didn't happen: Well, there goes the leader of the free world, 
shouting unhinged--unhinged--and false things about the end of 
democracy one more time. Oh, you know, just another day. What else is 
on TV?
  It is utterly surreal and, frankly, embarrassing, the President 
walking on stage every couple of months, shouting angry things and 
appearing confused--confused--about whether it is 2023 or 1963--utterly 
confused. And nothing happens. The world keeps turning. The Republicans 
keep passing popular, commonsense laws that make it easy to vote and 
hard to cheat. Voters of all races continue having good voting 
experiences. The President, his advisers, and a few radical activists 
are the only people stuck--stuck--in this fake parallel universe.
  Our democracy is in fine shape no matter what a few extreme voices 
are shouting. It is this White House's grip on reality that is truly 
concerning.