Rachel Maddow Obliterates Joe Manchin’s Excuses For Blocking Voting Rights

Rachel Maddow shredded Joe Manchin’s nonsensical excuses for his blockade of voting rights legislation.

Video:

Maddow said:

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The government will stand in the way. The government will do that. See the exact phrase he used there! The laws there, the uses are there. The government will stand behind us, we have the right to vote. We have that. Who is the government in this construction? Senator Joe Manchin actually has, in his personal hands, whether the government will stand behind people to protect the right to vote. 

And right now, thanks to him, it is the governments in places like Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, Georgia, state governments controlled by Republicans, are, making it so people can’t vote. Or have their votes counted. Or have their vote diluted to an extent that their votes basically don’t count. No matter how potently and completely they and their cohort vote for their chosen representative. 

The existing federal voting rights act was gutted by the United States Supreme Court by Republican-appointed judges. The restrictions on voting rights we are now seeing, like this one in Texas, they cannot be blocked anymore by the federal government. This new law in Texas that is having the state-required by law to throw out half the ballots applications, it is law. It is new law they made in Texas and it is in effect. It is not being blocked by anything. The state government has radically rescinded voting rights there. And no one is coming to the rescue because of Joe Manchin. 

The federal government can only help in those instances if congress acts. If congress passes legislation to let the federal government establish federal minimum standards when it comes to elections. Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema who are working with Republican senators to stop that from happening.

Senator Manchin says, don’t worry, the government will fix it somehow. As if it’s not the government who is blocking people from voting. The Republican state government who is blocking people from voting in the states. And as if he is not the government. As if he is not the reason the federal government can step in to fix this. The federal government could step in and fix this, it is those senators working with Republicans who are stopping that from happening.

As our own Sarah Jones pointed out, Joe Manchin is the government that could do something:

Get Ready For Manchin And Sinema To Try To Con Democrats With The Electoral Count Act

Sens. Manchin and Sinema are hoping that nobody notices when they switch voting rights legislation for a reform of the Electoral Count Act. They are going to try to sell their compromise with Senate Republicans as protecting the vote when it will do no such thing.

The Electoral Count Act definitely needs to be reformed, but it is not a substitute for voting rights legislation, and nobody should allow Manchin and Sinema to pull the wool over their eyes.

The government isn’t standing the way.

Joe Manchin is standing in the way of voting rights.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association