Schiff: Early Voting and Voting by Mail ‘Very Much Interrelated’ with ‘Economic Health’

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) defended House Democrats pushing for voting by mail and early voting in their coronavirus relief bill because such proposals are part of protecting the health of democracy, and “we view the economic health and the health of our democracy as very much interrelated.”

Host Chris Hayes asked Schiff about the criticism that Democrats “sort of see this opportunity to get a bunch of stuff you wanted anyway, in under the cover of emergency legislation. What’s your response to that?”

Schiff responded, “I think what they’re really focused on is, we want to make sure that we protect, not only the health of the economy, but the health of our democracy. And for that reason, we want to make sure that we provide that people can vote by mail, and have early voting. We saw the fiasco in Ohio. We don’t want that repeated. And I think what Donald Trump would like, what Mitch McConnell would like is a situation where they can create a corporate slush fund that they can do with as they choose, and the voters won’t be able to hold them accountable. Because they won’t be able to get to the ballot places without risking their lives. And so, we view the economic health and the health of our democracy as very much interrelated. They view the health of their slush fund and suppressing the vote as interrelated, and I think that’s part of the conflict.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett