Biden Delivers Speech on Voting Rights in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA - President Joe Biden on Tuesday spoke in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the U.S. constitution, to charge that Republican maneuvering is putting democracy in the worst peril since the Civil War.

The speech in the city where the founding document of the U.S. democratic system was drawn up and signed in 1787 was Biden's highest profile foray yet into a controversy that both Republicans and Democrats describe in dire terms. According to the White House and congressional Democrats, Republicans are using state legislatures to restrict voting rights across the country under the guise of increasing election security. Republicans -- led by former president Donald Trump and his unprecedented campaign, based on lies, to overturn his election loss to Biden -- insist tougher voting rules are needed to crack down on voter fraud.