Mitch McConnell ripped Democrats' voting rights proposal on Tuesday, claiming it's a 'transparently partisan' effort that shows the left's 'disdain' for Americans.
'Many Democrats would pass [H.R.1] with the slimmest possible majority, even after its companion faced bipartisan opposition over in the House,' McConnell said from the Senate floor on Tuesday.
'What a craven political calculation. What a way to show your disdain for the American people's choices,' he added.
The comments come as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer prepares to bring a procedural vote to the floor to begin debate on the For the People Act, which would expand voting rights and access.
Schumer, in remarks from the Senate floor on Tuesday, blamed Trump for Republican opposition to the bill.
'Donald Trump, fresh off a resounding loss in the 2020 presidential election, cried foul and lied — lied — that the election was stolen from him, like a petulant child,' the New York Democrat said.
'There is a rot at the center of the modern Republican Party,' he continued. 'Donald Trump's big lie has spread like a cancer and threatens to envelop one of America's major political parties.'
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said from the Senate floor Tuesday that Democrats' voting rights bill is 'transparently partisan' and shows the left's 'disdain' for Americans
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blamed Donald Trump for the GOP opposing the legislation. 'There is a rot at the center of the modern Republican Party,' he said. 'Donald Trump's big lie has spread like a cancer and threatens to envelop one of America's major political parties'
'Even worse, it has poisoned our democracy, eroded faith in our elections, which is so detrimental to the future faith people need to have in our democracy,' Schumer said. 'And of course, it became the match that lit a wildfire of Republican voter suppression laws sweeping across the country. Because of one man's lie, Republicans are now doing the dastardly act of taking away voting from millions of Americans, making it much harder for them to vote, and many, many will not.'
He repeated the sentiment on Twitter and added: 'Republicans claim they're making it easier to vote and harder to cheat in an election. But in reality, they are making it harder to vote and easier to steal an election.'
The voting rights bill is all but certain to fail in the Senate on Tuesday as Republicans move to block the progressive priority. All 50 Democrats would need to garner support from 10 Republicans to avoid a filibuster.
'Later today, the Senate will vote on whether to advance Democrats' transparently partisan plan to tilt every election in America permanently in their favor,' McConnall said Tuesday. 'By now, the rotten, inner-workings of this power grab have been thoroughly exposed to the light.'
The vote to begin debate on H.R. 1 is scheduled for Tuesday around 5:30 p.m.
President Joe Biden met with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin at the White House on Monday afternoon, and Schumer said Tuesday that Manchin is now on board with voting for the bill.
McConnell blasted the legislation Monday as a 'disastrous proposal' that will get 'no quarter' in the Senate.
'They've made it abundantly clear that the real driving force behind S1 is a desire to rig the rules of American elections permanently, permanently in Democrats' favor,' McConnell said of Democrats' efforts.
Schumer is bringing a vote to the floor Tuesday on a motion to begin debate on the amended version of legislation that passed the House in March.
The procedural vote, however, would need 60 votes to succeed – and there is no indication any Republican senators will support the bill, let alone 10.
Manchin previously said he opposes the bill, arguing that any major voting or election legislation must have bipartisan support, or else he will go against it. With a 50-50 split Senate, any single Democratic defector could kill a bill.
President Barack Obama also weighed into the debate by citing the Capitol Riot as a reason to support the legislation and 'not take Democracy for granted'.
'The violence that occurred in the US Capitol on January 6, just a few months ago, should remind us that we can't take our democracy for granted,' Obama said on a call with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee on Monday.
'Around the world, we have seen once vibrant democracies go into
