ATLANTA – President Joe Biden challenged senators Tuesday to stand against what he called voter suppression in some states, urging them to change Senate rules and pass voting rights legislation that Republicans are blocking.

Biden said he’d been having quiet conversations with senators for months over the two bills – a lack of progress that has brought his criticism from activists in his own party.

“I’m tired of being quiet!” he shouted. “I will not yield. I will not flinch.”

Current rules require 60 votes to advance most legislation – a threshold that Senate Democrats can’t meet alone because they only have a 50-50 majority with Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties. Republicans unanimously oppose the election bills.

Not all Democrats are on board with changing the filibuster rules. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin threw cold water on the idea Tuesday, saying any changes should be made with substantial Republican buy-in.

Biden spent decades in the Senate, and he spoke of how much it’s changed for the worse, calling it “a shell of its former self. It gives me no satisfaction to say that as an institutionalist.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has set Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a deadline to either pass voting legislation or consider revising the rules around the chamber’s filibuster blocking device.

Biden told his audience: “The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation. …

“Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch,” he said. “I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign, yes and domestic! And so the question is where will the institution of the U.S. Senate stand?”

When asked what he was risking politically by speaking out when there aren’t enough votes to change the rules, he said: “I risk not saying what I believe. That’s what I risk. This is one of those defining moments. It really is. People are going to be judged on where were they before and where were they after the vote. History is going to judge us.”