Name: Biden urges Americans to fight for voting rights
Uploaded: 2021-07-13T15:43:25-0400
Duration: 1456456
Description: President Joe Biden declared that preserving voting rights is "a test of our time" Tuesday during a speech in Philadelphia.

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President Joe Biden declared that preserving voting rights is "a test of our time" Tuesday during a speech in Philadelphia.

I used to be chairman of the board of this place, Jeffrey Rosen allowed me to do that for a while. But thank you all for being here. I truly appreciated governor. It's a bum beyond the call mr Mayor, I compliment. I thought you were a great mayor. I still think you are, but your judgment and fiance is even stronger. Uh, but, but all of you and uh, good friend, bobby brady, I see so many friends at Al Sharpton. Al how are you pal? Great to see you. And uh, I'm gonna get in trouble here because I'm gonna recognize my congresswoman from the state of lisa blunt Rochester, her sister who used to run my office, stand up folks. Good afternoon. There's a serious subject I'd like to talk about today. I'm here in philadelphia, the National Constitution Center, the City and the place where the story of we, the people, we, the people, the story that's neither simple nor straightforward. That's because the stories of some of our parts and all those parts are fundamentally human and being human is to be imperfect, driven by appetite and ambition as much as by goodness and grace. But some things in America should be simple and straight forward. Perhaps the most important of those things, the most fundamental of those things is the right to vote. The right to vote freely, right to both. Really the right the right to vote fairly. The right to have your vote counting the democratic threshold is liberty within anything is possible without it nothing, nothing. And for our democracy and the work and to deliver our work and our people, it's up to all of us to protect that right. This is a test of our time. What I'm here to talk about today, just think about the past election. 102 year old woman in Arkansas who voted for the first time on the very spot. She once picked cotton. A 94 year old woman in Michigan voted early and in person In her 70s, consecutive election. No, she said, said this election was quote, the most important vote that we ever had. The daughter who voted memory of her dad Died of COVID, 19 others wouldn't have the experience of pain and darkness and loss that she was patients and the and apparent parents who voted for school Children will learn it. Sons and daughters voted for the planet. They're going to live on young people Just turning 18 and everyone for the first time in their lives, but they could truly make a difference. America America and americans of every background voted. They voted for good jobs and higher wages. They voted for racial equity and justice. They voted to make health care right, not a privilege. The reason that americans went to vote and the lengths they went to vote to be able to vote this past election were absolutely extraordinary. In fact, the fact that so many election officials across the country made it easier and safer for them to be able to vote in the middle of a pandemic. Is remarkable as a result, In 2020 more people voted America than ever ever in the history of America In the middle of a once in a century pandemic. All told more than 150 Americans of every age of every race. Every background exercise their right to vote. They voted early, they voted absentee, they voted in person, they voted by mail, they voted by dropbox and then they got their families and friends throughout and vote. Election officials. The entire electoral system which stood unrelenting political attacks, physical threat, intimidation and pressure. They did so with unyielding courage and faith in our democracy. With recount after recount after recount court case, after court case. The 2020 election was the most scrutinized election ever in American history. Challenge after challenge brought to local, state and election officials, state legislature, state and federal courts. Even to the United States Supreme Court. Not once but twice. More than 80 judges, including those appointed by my predecessor, heard the arguments in every case. Neither cause nor evidence was found to undermine the national achievement of administering the historic election. In the face of such extraordinary challenges, audit recounts conducted And Arizona Wisconsin in Georgia was recounted three times. It's clear for those who challenge the results and questioning integer elections. No other election has ever been held under such scrutiny and such high standards. The big lie is just that a big lie. 2020 election not hyperbole suggests the most examine the fullest expression the world of the people in the history of this nation. This should be selling an example of America at its best. But instead we continue to see human nature at its worst. Something darker and more sinister in America. If you lose, accept the results, you follow the constitution. You try again, you don't call facts fake and then try to bring down the american experiment just because you're unhappy. That's not statesmanship, that's not statesmanship, That's selfishness. That's not democracy is to denial of the right to vote. It suppresses. It subjugates the denial of full and free and fair elections. The most un american thing than any of us can imagine. The most undemocratic, The most unpatriotic and sadly not unprecedented From the nine enslaved people. Full citizenship until the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments after the civil war 2, 9 women the right to vote until the 19th Amendment 100 years ago. The poll taxes and literacy tests and the Cook cook can campaigns of violence and terror Less than in the 50s and 60 To the Supreme Court decision in 2013. And then again, just two weeks ago, a decision that weakened the landmark voting rights act to the willful Tax election attacks in 2020 and then to a whole other level of threat, violence and the deadly insurrection Capital in January six, just got back from europe Beginning the G- seven NATO wonder joe wonder, go ask, is it going to be okay citadel democracy in the world? Is it going to be time and again? We've weathered threats to the right to vote in free and fair elections and each time we found a way to overcome, that's what we must do today. Vice President Harris and I have spent our careers doing this work and I've asked her to lead to bring people together to protect the right to vote in our democracy. And starts with continuing the fight to pass HR one the four the People Act. That bill, that bill would help end voter suppression in the states, get dark money out of politics, give voice to the people at the grassroots level, create a fair district maps and end partisan political gerrymander. Last month, republicans opposed even debating even considering for the people that senate democrats stood united to protect our democracy, the sanctity of the vote we must pass before the People Act. It's a national imperative. We must also fight with jOHN LewiS voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and expand, restore and expand voting protections to prevent voter suppression all the Congress women and men here. There's a bunch of new johN money just weeks ago, Supreme Court yet again, we can the voting rights act in a pill with justice Kagan called quote a significant race based disparity in voting opportunities. Court's decision as harmful as is does not limit the Congress's ability to repair the damage done. That's the important point, puts the burden back on Congress to restore the voting rights act to its intended strength. As soon as Congress passes before the people acting that jOHn LeWIS body Rights advance Mag, I will sign it and what the whole world see it. That will be an important moment in the world is wondering. The world is wondering, okay, his white knows what I'm talking about for real. You know, the world is wondering what is it we also have to be clear on, but the obstruction we face legislation is one tool, but not the only tool, and it's not the only measure of our obligation to defend democracy. For example, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the United States Department of Justice is going to be using its authorities to challenge onslaught of state laws undermining voting rights. The old and new way focus will be on dismantling racially discriminatory laws. Like the recent challenge to Georgia's vicious anti voting law. The Department of Justice will do so with the voting rights division at my request is doubling its size and enforcement staff, civil rights groups, civil rights groups and other organizations have announced their plans to stay vigilant and challenge these odious laws in the courts in texas. For example, Republican led state legislation wants to allow partisan poll watchers to intimidate voters and imperil and an impartial uh, poll workers. They want voters to die further and be able to be in a position where they wonder who's watching them and intimidating to wait longer to vote, to drive a hell of a lot. Excuse me, a long way to get to vote. They want to make it so hard and inconvenient that they hope people don't vote at all. That's what this is about. This year alone, 17 states of an act, not just proposed, but an active 28 new laws to make it harder for americans to vote, Not to mention and catch this. Nearly 400 additional bills. Republican members of the state legislatures are trying to pass The 21st century Jim Crow Assault is real. It's unrelenting, we're going to challenge it vigorously. While while this broad assault against voting rights is not unprecedented, it's taking on a new and literally pernicious forms, it's no longer just about who gets to vote. Are making it easier for eligible voters to vote about who gets to count who gets to count whether or not your vote counted at all. It's about moving from independent election administrators, work for the people, polarized state legislatures and partisan actors will work for political parties. To me, this is simple. This is election subversion. It's the most dangerous threat to voting in the integrity of free and fair elections in our history. Never before have you decided who gets to count? Count what votes count? Some some legislate legislators want to make it harder for you to vote. And if you vote, they want to be able to tell your vote doesn't count any reason they make up. They want the ability to reject the final count and ignore the will of the people if they're pervert candidate loses. The trying. I don't like targeting people of color, targeting voters of all racism back with a simple target who did not vote for them. That's the target. It's unconscious. I mean really it's hard to, it's hard to declare just how critical this is. It's simply unconscionable. Got to shore up our election system and address the threat to election subversion, not just from abroad, which I spent time with Putin talking about, but from home from home. Was to ask those who represent us at the federal state local levels. Will you deny the will of the people? Will you ignore their voices? We have to ask, are you on the side of truth or lies factor, fiction, justice or injustice, Democracy or autocracy. That's what it's coming down. Which brings me perhaps the most important thing we have to do. We have 24 forge a coalition americans of every background of political party, the advocates, the students, the faith theaters, the labor leaders, the business executive and raise the urgency of this moment because as much as people know they're screwing around with the election process, I don't think most people think this is about who gets to count what vote counts, literally not figuratively. You vote for certain electors to vote for somebody for president. State legislature comes along under their proposal and they said no we don't like those elected. We're gonna point other electors are going to vote for the other guy. Other one because here's the deal. In 2020 democracy was put to a test first by the panda then by a desperate attempt to deny the reality of the results of the election. By violent and deadly insurrection on the capital, the citadel of our democracy. I've been around a long time in public thought I've seen it all or most of but I never thought I'd see that for real. And in spite of what you see on television and you saw you have senator Sanders was just a day cap. Yes, people visiting the camp folks. We met the test because of the extraordinary courage of election officials, many of them republicans, our court system, those brave capitol police officer, because of them democracy held. Look how close it came. I mean, for real, how close it came. We're gonna face another test in 2022. A new wave of unprecedented voter suppression and raw and sustained election subversion. We have to prepare now, as I said, time and again, no matter what, you can never stop the american people from voting, they will decide. The power must always be with the people. That's why just like we did in 2020, we have to prepare for 2022 will engage in an all out effort to educate voters about the changing laws, register them to vote and then get the vote out will encourage people to run for office themselves at every level. We'll be asking my republican friends in Congress, in states and cities and counties to stand up for God's sake and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election and the sacred right to vote. Have you no shame have whether it's stopping foreign interference in our elections with the spread of disinformation from within, we have to work together. Vice President Harris and I were making it clear that there's a real peril in making raw power rather than the idea of liberty. The centerpiece of the common life founders understood this. Women of Seneca falls understood this. The brave, heroic foot soldier in the civil rights movement, understood this. So must we. This isn't about democrats and republicans, a story about who we are as americans. Is that basic? It's about the kind of country we want today, the kind of country we want for our Children and grandchildren tomorrow. And quite frankly, the whole world is watching folks. I'm not being sent them. I'm not preaching you. I'm just giving it to you straight. I promise I would always do lay things out on the line to honor your trust with trust. So hear me clearly, There's an unfolding assault taking place in America today. An attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote and fair and free elections, an assault on democracy, an assault on liberty, assault on who we are, who we are. As americans for make no mistake, bullies and merchants of fear, peddlers of lies are threatening the very foundation of our country. Gives me no pleasure to say this. I never thought my entire career I'd ever have to say. But I swore note to you to God to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. That's an oath forms a sacred trust to defend America against all threats, Both foreign and domestic. The assault on free and fair elections is just such a threat, literally. I've said it before. We're facing the most significant test of our democracy since the civil war. That's not hyperbole since the summer. Confederates back never breached the capital as insurrectionist did on january the sixth. I'm not saying this thing. I'm saying this because you should. Yeah, I'm also saying this. There's good news. Doesn't have to be, this doesn't have to be for real. We have the means. We just need to will the will to save and strengthen our democracy. We did in 20, we did in the 2020. The battle for the soul of America In that battle, the people voted democracy for rail, our constitution. Hell we have to do it again. My fellow americans requires fair mindedness, devotion to justice Kourtney, that sounds love of country requires just the united common purposes, declares here and now. We the people will never give up. We will not give in, we will overcome, we'll do it together, guaranteeing the right to vote, ensuring every vote is counted has always been the most patriotic thing. We do. Just remember our late friend john Lewis said, freedom is not a state, it's an act. Freedom is not a state, it's an act and we must act and we will act for our cause is just our business clear and our hearts are full. But we, the people for our democracy, For America itself, we must act. God bless you all and may God protect our truth and all those who stand to watch over our democracy, but act thanks to sleep.

Matthew Burns

Biden urges Americans to fight for voting rights

Biden on voting

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I'm meteorologist, Amy Wilmoth in the WRL severe weather center tracking a cold front that will move through the state throughout the day. Today, we'll have some light rain with this perhaps moderate rain at times, but most of you won't get a ton of rain. It's just going to be some light passing showers at four o'clock this afternoon, we'll still have some rain showing up on the radar scattered showers possible. Uh, basically anywhere aside from our northern counties, our northern counties should be dry at that point by 5 p.m. or so. The rain is south of the triangle impacting our southern counties during the evening. Commute, still some showers around in our southern counties at 7 p.m. But beyond that, the rain will start to move out and it will be dry overnight tonight. And we're back to sunshine as we head into tomorrow. Look at how much rain we could get. It's less than 1/10 of an inch of rain. So we're not going to get much out of this system, but at least it's something, it's our only rain chance in the next seven days. So we'll have some light rain moving through thanks to the cold front, temperatures will likely get into the low eighties in our southern counties where we'll have sunshine a little bit longer. 74 for the high in Raleigh and Durham, 75 in Roxboro, 73 for the high temperature in South Hill, Virginia. So temperatures running pretty close to normal throughout the day today. Good news. If you're headed to the Bulls game this evening at 635 it looks like the rain will be out of here. We have a 20% chance for rain, but the best chance will be in the southern part of the viewing area, 70 degrees, the expected temperature at 6 p.m. 68 by seven and in the mid six by 8 p.m. So maybe take the jacket or the sweater with you as temperatures fall into the sixties starting around seven o'clock or so. So we have passing showers today. Generally light rain a little breezy at times with the high of 74 tonight, we'll have mostly clear skies. We'll get down to 51 beautiful weather. Thursday, partly cloudy to mostly sunny with a high of 72. Pretty much the same thing on Friday. Temperatures will be in the low seventies for highs. We're up to 76 Saturday and then low eighties by Sunday, mid to upper eighties for high temperatures in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday of next week.

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Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


Sky 5 flies over plane crash at RDU

RDU Airport Authority gives an update on a plane crash that sent a physician and pilot to the hospital. The crash occurred Wednesday morning on a flight that took off from Wilmington.

<p>Landguth first, I want to extend my thoughts to those affected by this morning's aircraft accident and thank our first responders for their quick action to respond. The airport authority and its mutual aid partners responded to an aircraft accident at RDU involving a general aviation aircraft. The accident occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. in the grass next to runway five, right 23 left. The flight was arriving from Wilmington, North Carolina. The A the aircraft is owned by medical Air Inc and operated by UN C air operations. The aircraft had two people on board, one pilot and one passenger. Both were transported to area hospitals. The federal A Bush administration issued a ground stop that was lifted at approximately 1130 this morning. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have both been notified. The National Transportation Safety Board is en route and expected to arrive within the next hour at which time we will conduct an accident investigation. Rdu's runway five left 23 right reopened to departing and arriving aircraft around 11:30 a.m. this morning. Are you experiencing approximately 70 delays and several arriving flights were diverted to other airports? Until ground stock was lifted, travelers should contact their airline for the latest updates regarding the flight status. And of course questions about the identity and condition of the pilot and passenger should be directed to UN C health. And at this time I'll try to answer any questions. You may have, uh, the one, any other accidents in, in the past. I'm not familiar with any other accidents have occurred with that operation. I don't know, uh, that's the role of the National Transportation Safety Board. They'll actually come in and do the investigation. Uh, and at some point in the future, they write up a report and determine what the cause of the accident was. You know, that there was no notification to the airport authority or to the FAA uh about any type of emergency on board. Do we have a guy? We don't, all we know that we've got them out of the airplane and we've got them transported to local hospitals. We know situations like this and delays have a ripple effect on, you know, flights. Do you have any idea what type of impact we'll see here in our view and for not sure, but what we're going to encourage everybody to do is reach out to your airlines. We'll be able to give you real time information about the impact of your particular flight. Ok. I believe some of them went to Greensboro and I think a couple went to Charlotte as well. What, what to be impacted due to the NTSD. Say that one more time at this point in time, what we call the west side of our airport is now open the investigation they'll conduct will all be on the east side. So at this point, we are anticipating normal operations returning to normal operations from this point forward. I don't think that anything that they're doing regarding the investigation or where they would have to investigate would have any impact to the west side of the airport. No, the aircraft is still on the airfield itself. It's on the east side of the field. So terminal one that runways the east side of the field, that's where the debris field actually sits, the west side of the field is open and operational and safe to operate. Not that I'm aware of in operations for you throughout this event today. What was your main concern concerning the passengers that were in the internals? Right. I think our primary focus when, when that accident occurred were the two people sitting in that aircraft? Our primary mission is to make sure we can get to them and try to rescue them and try to make sure that we can get them in a safe condition as fast as we possibly can. Uh secondarily is trying to figure out then how we recover and get our operations back up and running. Mhm. How does that affect? What goes on term? Yeah, so great. Question. So the team has figured out a way to get all the aircraft they're gonna operate at terminal one. Your Southwest develops. Uh We've got a crossover taxi way that we can actually get them through our general aviation aircraft. We've got a crossover taxiway, we can get them to. But the rest of the uh accident scene is actually kind of isolated and closed and locked off. Yeah, you're terminal one at this point in time. Once they can get back on their schedule, it's going to be a normal operations. All right. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. Grab your phone, right.</p>

News conference: RDU plane crash sent 2 to hospital

A small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) Wednesday morning.



WRAL News coverage: Plane crashes at RDU, pilot and physician injured

A small plane crash with injuries was reported Wednesday at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Biden urges Americans to fight for voting rights

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