Biden ties legislative agenda to MLK push for racial justice

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden connected Thursday tied his legislative priorities connected voting rights, constabulary betterment and clime alteration to Martin Luther King Jr.’s propulsion for radical justness arsenic helium marked the 10th day of the opening of the civil rights leader’s memorial connected the National Mall.

Biden, introduced by Vice President Kamala Harris, sought to reassure his supporters that helium wouldn't fto up the combat arsenic helium works to musculus his monolithic societal spending measure done a divided Congress. Invoking King, Biden said the state was inactive moving to unrecorded up to its ideals arsenic a federation and had reached an inflection constituent connected issues including warring voting restrictions.

“I cognize that advancement does not travel accelerated enough,” Biden said. “It ne'er has.”

But helium reiterated that protecting the close to ballot was “central” to his administration. “I cognize the stakes. You cognize the stakes. This is acold from over," helium said.

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Biden spoke astatine the memorial a time aft Senate Republicans blocked statement connected Democrats’ elections authorities that they tout arsenic a almighty counterweight to caller voting restrictions passing successful conservative-controlled states. Biden has promised to propulsion for the legislation, but supporters are increasing impatient that helium has not embraced changing Senate rules to extremity the filibuster to interruption done the logjam.

Biden besides promised to “continue to combat for existent constabulary betterment legislation," which has stalled retired successful Congress aft bipartisan talks collapsed this summer.

Highlighting his docket of societal spending, which remains the taxable of heated intraparty negotiations, Biden said the measure would chopped medicine cause costs, trim poorness and combat lodging discrimination.

“We tin spend to bash this,” Biden said. “We can’t spend not to bash this.”

Biden is hoping to rally Democrats astir an statement connected that authorities earlier helium departs for an planetary clime acme adjacent week.

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The memorial was dedicated successful the autumn of 2011 and is the archetypal grant for an African American connected the National Mall. Located connected Independence Avenue on the Tidal Basin, the memorial features a immense likeness of King carved retired of chromatic and a abstracted partition etched with immoderate of his astir notable quotes.

Recalling the struggles of King's time, Biden said successful his code that achromatic nationalism inactive poses a menace to the federation and that, successful his view, it inspired the Jan. 6 insurrection astatine the Capitol. Biden said radical of his procreation ever thought that hatred would spell away.

“But it doesn’t," helium said. "It lone hides until immoderate seemingly morganatic idiosyncratic breathes immoderate oxygen nether the rocks wherever they’re hiding and gives it immoderate breath.”

In a notation to erstwhile President Donald Trump, Biden said, “We had a president who appealed to the prejudice.” He added, “We cannot and indispensable not springiness hatred immoderate harmless harbor.”

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Harris, for her part, praised King arsenic a “prophet” and said the monument “is dedicated to a antheral who lived among us.”

“This monument, immoderate your age, is dedicated to a antheral whose dependable we inactive hear, whose words inactive echo not lone crossed this city, but passim our state and our world,” she added.

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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

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