President Joe Biden on Tuesday gave his strongest push to date for Democrats voting rights bills in Congress as a counter to Republican-backed voter restrictions in dozens of states around the country predicated on former President Donald Trump s big lie of a rigged election.

No other election has ever been held under such scrutiny or such high standards, he said in a speech in Philadelphias National Constitution Center, amid an exhibit titled Civil War and Reconstruction.

The big lie is just that: a big lie, Biden continued.

The address was scheduled in part to allay concerns from voting rights advocates that he and his White House are not doing enough to push federal legislation.

Biden said the 2020 election should be celebrated, an example of America at its best.

But instead, we continue to see an example of human nature at its worst: something darker and more sinister, he said. In America, if you lose, you accept the results. You follow the Constitution, you try again. You dont call facts fake and then try to bring down the American experiment just because youre unhappy. Thats not statesmanship Thats not statesmanship thats selfishness. Thats not democracy, thats the denial of the right to vote.