White House press secretary Jen Psaki was pressured by both liberal and conservative members of the media on Monday over President Biden’s opposition to a new voting bill in Georgia after earning “Pinocchios” from fact-checkers for passing false statements about its provisions.
Biden last week urged Major League Baseball to move its July all-star game from Atlanta in protest and MLB took the advice and outraged Republicans who claim the law was misreported and attacked.
Biden received the Washington Post’s “Four Pinocchios”, which endorsed his candidacy, for spreading misinformation about the impact of state law on voting hours.
The law does not change the opening hours of election days, but it expands early voting by adding a second mandatory Saturday. It also confirms that provinces have the option to open two Sundays and allow provinces to extend early voting hours beyond standard business hours.
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Psaki during her daily press conference Monday about Biden’s inaccurate comments, including during the ESPN interview in which he expressed support for the boycott of Atlanta.
Is the president going to change the way he talks about Georgia’s new voting law? Because in that interview you referred to, he said the law would stop voting at five when the working people just get out and he said it would end voting hours early so working people can’t vote after their shift is over – but the Washington Post gave those clams ‘four Pinocchios’ because that part of the law allows counties to extend voting hours, ”asked Doocy.
Psaki replied that “fundamentally, the president doesn’t believe it should be made more difficult to vote, he thinks it should be easier. And this bill makes it more difficult to request and return an absentee ballot, it shortens the duration of the second elections in Georgia, making it more difficult for major jurisdictions to offer early ballots. It imposes rigorous new restrictions on the ability of local officials to set voting times to meet the needs of voters in their country. Those are all bits of the bill. So his opinion is that we should make it easier, not harder, to vote, and that will remain what he advocates. “
Georgian law requires photo ID to get an absentee ballot and shortens the time to vote absent. It also allows government officials to take over local election offices in response to alleged misconduct.
Another reporter, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, asked Psaki in a follow-up question, “The president does acknowledge that the new law doesn’t change election day voting hours, right?”
To that, Psaki said, seemingly repeating the claim that Biden the Pinocchios deserved, “It doesn’t extend them for early moods either. It makes early votes shorter. So there are many pieces of legislation that he is concerned about and that is what he expressed. “