President Joe Biden is suggesting support for allowing foreign nationals, including diplomats of foreign countries like China and Russia, to vote in local Washington, DC elections.
In October 2022, the Washington, DC, City Council voted 12-1 to advance a law to allow foreign nationals, regardless of whether they have visas, green cards, or are illegally in the United States, to vote in local elections such as school board and mayoral races.
Most significantly, the law gives the right to vote in local elections to foreign diplomats and others who work at embassies of foreign governments, including China and Russia.
This week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested that Biden supports allowing foreign nationals to vote in local D.C. elections.
“The President does not support allowing noncitizens to vote in federal elections,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’ve been clear about that from here. As it relates to that particular vote or that particular bill, I don’t have any updates from here to share … and we’ll update you as soon as — if we have anything, if that changes.”
Last month, House Republicans and 42 House Democrats voted to block the D.C. law from taking effect.
As Breitbart News detailed, Senate Republicans are now looking to pass an identical resolution sponsored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sometime before March 14 when the law’s 30-day review period ends. Even if Senators fail to pass the resolution within the 30-day period, though, Congress still has the power to invalidate the law at any time and refuse funding for D.C. officials to implement the law.
The latest statement from Biden’s administration comes after the president, in a memo, said he supports D.C. giving voting rights to foreign nationals, including illegal aliens.
“For far too long, the more than 700,000 residents of Washington, DC, have been deprived of full representation in the U.S. Congress,” his office wrote in a memo. “This taxation without representation and denial of self-governance is an affront to the democratic values on which our Nation was founded.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
