HBO host Bill Maher argued “long lines are the new poll tax” and Republicans “an’t get the votes anymore, so what they do, is f*cking cheat” on Friday’s “Real Time.”
Maher said, “I think that long lines are the new poll tax. You know, it’s amazing, we saw it in the Arizona primary, a couple of weeks earlier, Maricopa County, the secretary was mentioning, Sheriff Joe Arpaio (R), they cut the number of voting booths by 70%. Republicans cheat…they can’t get the votes anymore, so what they do, is f*cking cheat, and this is cheating. You can’t get people to vote for you so you purge — I mean, they made a big thing about [New Jersey Governor] Chris Christie (R), remember, with closing the bridge and the traffic jam. This is a much more important traffic jam, that the media should be focusing on. This was a Republican-organized, purposeful traffic jam.”
Max Brooks added, “If you look at a map of the country, if you look at a map of what states have strict voter ID laws, it’s all the Jim Crow states. With a few exceptions, it is Jim Crow. And it’s important, black lives matter, but so do black votes, and that’s why they’re trying to roll them back.”
Maher then stated, “Yes. I mean, for folks who don’t remember, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, in 2010, and they said, well, we don’t need the Voting Rights Act anymore, because racism is over, it’s an urban myth. … I wish they would just admit that they were wrong about that, because the second they did that, states did this kind of sh*t, and they’re stopping people from voting. This is the real voter fraud scandal.”
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