In an interview on Sunday, US Vice President Kamala Harris warned that if Congress fails to pass voting rights legislation, America will lose its “role model” reputation.
With Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., effectively killing President Biden’s Build Back Better bill, the administration appears to be shifting its focus to other policy areas. During the summer, Harris was entrusted with promoting voting rights.
“People around the world watch what we do as America, because we have held ourselves out to be a model of the efficacy of the ability of a democracy to coexist with economic strength and power,” Harris said.
“We have been a role model, saying, you can see this, aspire to this, and reject autocracies and autocratic leadership,” she added.
She warned that right now, we’re about to take ourselves off the map as a role model if we let people destroy one of the most important pillars of democracy, which is free and fair elections.
She pushed for the passage of the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
In her most recent remarks on her voting rights mission, she cautioned Americans that unless Congress works together on the bill, the country will be thrown off its pedestal.
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While most Americans may not consider voting rights to be an “urgent” issue, Harris believes that the more the administration emphasises the issue, the more people will recognise that some are “suppressing the right of the American people to vote.”
(With inputs from agencies)
