Name: Biden Unleashes on GOP’s Voter Suppression Crusade: “Sick” and “Un-American”
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Biden Unleashes on GOP’s Voter Suppression Crusade: “Sick” and “Un-American”

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During his first formal news conference on Thursday afternoon, President Joe Biden addressed issues such as immigration, filibuster reform and voting rights, calling out a Republican playing out across the country. “What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is,” Biden said of Republican-led attempts to restrict voting access through more than 250 bills, describing such efforts as a “sick” and “despicable.” “This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle. This is gigantic, what they’re trying to do,” he added.As expected, Biden opened the with a status update on the pandemic—the administration’s preferred topic—as he announced a new vaccination goal of 200 million shots by Day 100 in office, which he noted was “twice our original goal.” He also spoke about school re-openings, saying that “nearly half of the K-8 schools are open full-time, five days a week, for in-person learning. Not yet a majority, but we’re really close,” the president remarked. The first question went to the Associated Press’ Zeke Miller, who right off the bat indicated his intention to ask Biden about other challenges, such as climate change and voting rights. “I got elected to solve problems,” Biden said, calling COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis “the fundamental one.” Asked whether his presidency can be a success if he can’t make progress on issues such as immigration and gun control, Biden posited that was up to the American people to decide. “I’ve been hired to solve problems, not create division.”While unwilling to state his support outright for eliminating the Senate filibuster, the president said the rule is “being abused in a gigantic way” and agreed with Barack Obama’s characterization of it as a “relic of the Jim Crow era.” After reiterating his pitch to reinstate the talking filibuster, Biden signaled new openness to eliminating the 60-vote threshold “if there’s complete lockdown and chaos as a result” of it that keeps him from enacting “elemental” agenda items, such as voting rights protections. In that case, Biden said, “we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about.”On immigration, PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor asked about the tension between Biden’s welcoming stance being an incentive for migrants even as the administration urges people not to come to the border—a characterization Biden pushed back on. “I’d like to think it’s because I’m a nice guy, but it’s not,” Biden said, continuing that poor conditions in home countries, as well as the current season being the safest time to travel, is responsible for the annual spike in border arrivals, the “vast majority” of which, Biden said, are being sent back. “We’re building back up the capacity that should have been maintained and built upon that Trump dismantled. It’s going to take time,” the president said.While several journalists asked questions on the situation at the border, none questioned Biden about the global pandemic that’s killed more than 545,000 Americans or the mass vaccination mobilization under way—a remarkable omission given how this was the White House press corps’ first opportunity for an extended back-and-forth with the president. “The failure to ask a single question about COVID is remarkable,” the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser. “By any standards, a fail.” Tommy Vietor, a former Obama official and Pod Save America co-host, the absence of COVID questions “a ridiculous failure by the press corps to focus on the issue that the vast majority of Americans care about most.” Or, as the Atlantic’s Edward-Isaac Dovere , “What if there was a pandemic for over a year and no one asked a question about it?”The 78-year-old president, who has yet to finish his first 100 days in office, however, was asked about his political future. He said his intention is to run for reelection, and expects that Vice President Kamala Harris would join him on the ticket. Asked in a follow-up question by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins whether he also expects to face former President Donald Trump come 2024, an exasperated Biden answered: “I have no idea if there will be a Republican Party” in four years. “Do you?”More Great Stories From Vanity Fair&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;— Andrew Cuomo’s Biographer on — How Scrambled to Score COVID-19 Vaccinations— A Private Jet of — in Criminal Investigations and Legally Screwed— The Wave of — From the Supreme Court?— Leak of Led to Multimillion-Dollar Settlement— From the Archive: Tragedy— Not a subscriber? to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. is a staff writer at Vanity Fair’s Hive.The freshest-and most essential-updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley.Read More

During his first formal news conference on Thursday afternoon, President Joe Biden addressed issues such as immigration, filibuster reform and voting rights, calling out a Republican playing out across the country. “What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is,” Biden said of Republican-led attempts to restrict voting access through more than 250 bills, describing such efforts as a “sick” and “despicable.” “This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle. This is gigantic, what they’re trying to do,” he added.As expected, Biden opened the with a status update on the...

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Charlotte Klein

Vanity Fair is a monthly magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast in the United States.  The first version of Vanity Fair was published from 1913 to 1936. The imprint was revived in 1983 and currently includes five international editions of the magazine. As of 2018, the Editor-in-Chief is Radhika Jones.

Biden Unleashes on GOP’s Voter Suppression Crusade: “Sick” and “Un-American”

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