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Texas governor threatens to arrest Democrats who fled state to block voting law
- Texas Democrats defy calls for their arrest in voting restrictions fight
- US President Joe Biden accuses Republicans of ‘election subversion’
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Texas Democrats have become outlaws, fleeing the state as Governor Greg Abbott threatens to arrest and confine them in the latest battle over voting rights.
More than 50 Texas Democrats flew to Washington DC this week, breaking quorum during a 30-day special session of the state Legislature due to end in August, effectively stalling Republican colleagues’ proposed voting restrictions. On Tuesday, they met with Vice-President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer.
“We’re buying some time,” congressman Chris Turner, the Texas House Democratic leader, said during a Tuesday briefing at the Capitol, and pleading with congressional Democrats on the eve of President Joe Biden’s speech Tuesday to pass legislation that would protect voting rights nationwide.
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Biden, under pressure from US civil rights leaders, called it a “national imperative” to pass sweeping voting rights legislation that has stalled in Congress, but he did not outline a path to overcome Republican opposition.
“It’s up to all of us to protect that right. It’s a test of our time,” he said in a speech in Philadelphia, birthplace of the US Constitution.
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Referring to attempts led by Trump to overturn the result of the presidential election, as well as pile on new voting rules in the name of security, Biden said “this is election subversion”.
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