WASHINGTON, 13 January 2022, (TON): Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell has denounced US President Joe Biden's voting rights speech as "incoherent" and "profoundly unpresidential".

Mr McConnell said on the Senate floor "I have known, liked, and personally respected Joe Biden for many years.”

"I did not recognise the man at the podium yesterday."

The remarks come one day after Mr Biden delivered a fiery speech in Atlanta calling for an overhaul of the US election system.

In an impassioned speech, Mr Biden said “he supported changes that would allow his party's proposed voting reforms to be passed without the support of opposition Republicans.”

Republicans have argued that Mr Biden's voting legislation would impose questionable national standards on local elections.

Currently, a majority of 60% is needed to pass most legislation in the Senate.

Mr Biden said that the push to pass the legislation was a "battle for the soul of America.”

He added that the 60-vote rule - known as the filibuster - had rendered the Senate "a shell of its former self".