Members of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s family marched on Washington on Monday to demand voting rights reform, c...
Members of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s family marched on Washington on Monday to demand voting rights reform, calling out Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for blocking it.
King's son Martin Luther King III cited his father's famous letter from a Birmingham jail and compared the two senators to those who told his father to wait for a more 'convenient time' to fight segregation.
'While there he wrote an open letter, in which he said the biggest stumbling block was not the Ku Klux Klan, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than justice,' he said.
'He was surrounded by people who told him to wait until a more convenient time and to use more agreeable methods - 59 years later, it's the same old song and dance from Senator Manchin and Sinema.'
'History will not remember them kindly,' he said of the two senators, who, despite a personal lobbying campaign from President Joe Biden, declined to kill the Senate filibuster in order to advance voting rights legislation.
Yolanda Renee King, Arndrea Waters King, and Martin Luther King III, lead the annual D.C. Peace Walk: Change Happens with Good Hope and a Dream across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge for Dr. Martin Luther King Day
King's son Martin Luther King III compared Senator Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema's opposition to voting rights legislation to those who told his father to wait for a more 'convenient time' to fight segregation
People participate with Martin Luther King III and his family for the MLK Holiday Peace Walk across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge
Signs at Monday's march in Washington D.C.
Members of Martin Luther King Jr.'s family slammed Senators Joe Manchin (left) and Kyrsten Sinema (right) on Monday for blocking voting rights legislation
Earlier on Monday, as part of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day D.C. Peace Walk, the King family and more than 100 national and local civil rights groups marched across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge into downtown Washington.
Martin Luther King III praised congressional Democrats for passing a sweeping infrastructure bill last year, but implored them to push through voting-rights legislation.
'If you can deliver an infrastructure bill for bridges, you can deliver voting rights for Americans. If you do not, there's no bridge in this nation that can hold the weight of that failure,' he said.
The bill would expand access to mail-in voting, strengthen federal oversight of elections in states with a history of racial discrimination and tighten campaign finance rules. Democratic supporters say it is needed to counter a wave of new restrictions on voting passed in Republican-led states that election observers say would make it harder for minority and low-income voters to cast ballots.
New restrictions have emerged following former President Donald Trump's false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the chamber would take up the bill on Tuesday, a delay from his earlier plan to hold a procedural vote on the bill by Monday, the federal holiday honoring King.
King III, his wife, Arndrea Waters King, and their daughter Yolanda Renee King, joined him at the march and the press conference after.
Yolanda Renee King, 13, also pleaded with the two conservative Democratic senators to pass voting rights legislation.
'Our future hinges on your decision and history will remember what choice you make,' she said.
She noted that while she is 'not old enough to vote, this fight is personal for me. It’s our future these elected leaders are deciding. It’s our voices they are trying to silence because they know our voices are powerful.'
Martin Luther King III (L) with daughter Yolanda Renee King
The march across Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge
The march was in support of voting rights legislation stalled in the Senate
King's family is urging the Senate to pass federal voting rights legislation
Republicans are united in opposition to the voting rights legislation, saying it should be handled on the state level and not the federal.
The only way around for Democratic leaders is to persuade Manchin and Sinema to agree to change the chamber's filibuster rule that requires at least 60 senators to agree on most legislation.
Chuck Schumer surrendered on late Thursday night and sent senators home, missing his deadline to pass voting legislation by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Schumer had vowed to keep the Senate in session all weekend to try and meet his goal but ultimately conceded to factors that were leading to its defeat: Manchin and Sinema doubling down on their opposition to killing the filibuster, Democratic Senator Brian Schatz is out through Sunday after testing positive for COVID, and the massive snow storm that hit Washington D.C. area on Sunday.
But, the Majority Leader vowed, he will start debate on a massive voting rights package on Tuesday.
He has canceled next week's schedule recess to bring senators back to Washington for the debate, beginning on Tuesday. And he renewed his promise to call a vote to kill the filibuster if Republican senators use that legislative tool to try and block the bill.
'Due to the circumstances regarding COVID and another potentially hazard winter storm approaching the DC area this weekend, the Senate will adjourn tonight,' Schumer said late Thursday night, his voice sounding hoarse.
'We will return on Tuesday to take up the House-passed message containing voting rights legislation. Make no mistake, the United States Senate will for the first time this Congress debate voting rights legislation.'
'If the Senate Republicans choose obstruction over protecting the sacred sacred right to vote - as we expect them to - the Senate will consider and vote on changing the Senate rules, as has been done many times before, to allow passage of voting rights legislation.'
It's unclear how Schumer will get voting legislation over the finish line, which leaves President Biden's dream of federal voting laws in tatters.
The president put all his powers of persuasion behind this effort. He went to Capitol Hill to personally lobby Manchin and Sinema. When the two stuck to their guns in favor of the filibuster - Biden needs all 50 Democratic senators to vote to kill it - he brought them to the White House Thursday night for another round of talks.
The meeting between the president and the two rogue senators was 'candid and respectful,' as Biden made a last-ditch effort to change the moderates' minds on filibuster reform.
They met at the White House on Thursday evening for a little over an hour, with the meeting ending by 7 p.m.
The meeting came after Sinema and Manchin took turns earlier on Thursday dashing Biden's hopes for the massive voting package, which would make Election Day a holiday, reform the redistricting process and tighten campaign finance laws.
Biden spent over an hour with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill Thursday to try and convince Manchin and Sinema to support removing the filibuster for voting rights legislation.
But Sinema dealt a death blow before that meeting when she went to the Senate floor to deliver a defiant defense of the legislative tool.
Manchin waited until after Capitol Hill meeting to issue a lengthy statement explaining his opposition to killing the filibuster.
'I will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,' he said. 'The filibuster plays an important role in protecting our democracy from the transitory passions of the majority and respecting the input of the minority in the Senate.'
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