Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said that Georgia’s new voting restrictions were the “new Jim Crow.”
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Georgia passed sweeping new voting legislation, including many restrictions that some Democrats such as Senator Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams have compared to Jim Crow laws. You grew up in the Jim Crow South. Do you see the Georgia election law as the new Jim Crow?”
Clyburn said, “Yes, I do. No question about it, and we keep talking about Georgia, but 23, I’m sorry, I saw the other day, 47 states that now proposed —Georgia is the one that’s taking it to the finality— but these thoughts are being expressed in other states as well. They know full well that these are ways to suppress voters to keep people from exercising their rights.”
He added, “I would say to anybody, just look at the history, and it’s there. What’s on anybody’s mind when you say, okay, we are going to deny voting places, we will get rid of drop boxes, we know we will create long lines? So now, let’s make it a crime if you brought a bottle of water standing in those long lines. It’s not what they intend is what the result is. So they can say anything they want to say about it. Just look through it and look throughout history, and you will know that what is taking place today is a new Jim Crow, just that simple.”
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