Video: Kaine Delivers Floor Speech Urging Swift Passage of Freedom to Vote Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine spoke on the Senate floor calling for the passage of the Freedom to Vote Act. This legislation, introduced by Kaine and his colleagues this week, would protect the right to vote and strengthen our democracy, ensuring that eligible voters get access to the ballot regardless of where they live. In his speech, Kaine spoke about the attempt during the January 6 insurrection to disenfranchise voters and the need to pass this legislation to ensure no voter is disenfranchised.

“There have been 1,994 people who have served in the United States Senate. 1,994. 100 of us share a unique experience. 100 of us were here on the only day in the history of this body when we were attacked by violent insurrectionists attempting to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. So from whatever state we represent or whatever our background, we are unified in having shared an experience never to be imagined, never to be forgotten, and never to be repeated. I believe the fact that we've shared this experience together with members of the Senate staff who were here with us, this puts a unique responsibility on our shoulders,” Kaine said.

“It was an effort to disenfranchise more than 80 million people in this country who had voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” continued Kaine.

“We have a burden on our shoulders to live up to the responsibility that we 100 uniquely share. And that responsibility is to make sure that no voter—not 80 million, not 10 million, not a million, not 10, not one—that no voter is disenfranchised in this country,” said Kaine.

In talking about state legislatures passing laws to restrict people’s ability to vote, Kaine said, “This is the same Big Lie tactic that led to the attack on this body, and it's happening all over this country, and there is a burden uniquely on our shoulders if we were paying attention on January 6th, to stand boldly to stop it, and to stop it once and for all. That is what the Freedom to Vote Act is about. It's about ensuring that these mass efforts at disenfranchisement that reach their most vivid and flowering in the violent attack on our Capitol don't occur, and that people have the ability to get access to a ballot, and to have confidence that their ballot will be counted with integrity, and that weird schemes and stunts and penalties and criminal punishment won't be thrown in their path like one high hurdle after the next to keep them from participating in a democracy that we proudly proclaim ourselves to be.”

“This bill, the debate that we'll have, the vote that we'll have, is a test of whether we mean what we say. I so look forward to engaging in this most important debate with my colleagues in the days to come,” concluded Kaine.

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