On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) stated that “these folks are trying to kill us right now as far as our right to vote. They’re trying to kill our democracy,” and urged people “confront this evil that is right there in front of our face and is ready to choke us to death unless we can show that we’re not going to lay down and let it happen, we’re actually going to seize control. This is our country. We built this country.”
Johnson said, “I remain hopeful that this administration, Joe Biden, President, will come to his senses, get away from the sentimentalism of the past of how the Senate used to work and how the members used to consort with each other and work things out over a drink and a cigar. Those days are long over. You know, these folks are trying to kill us right now as far as our right to vote. They’re trying to kill our democracy, and no amount of organizing can overcome the wrongfulness of suppressing votes in a democracy. We either have a democracy or we don’t, and if everyone can’t vote in this country, if some can’t vote because of their race, then this is not a true democracy. So, we’re actually in a fight, Tiffany, for democracy. It’s being attacked by those who would take away our vote and it’s wrong, and we can’t stand for it.”
He added, “I don’t know if enough people understand the danger that we are in. Your last segment about abortion and how the only people who will, in a new medieval society that they seek to impose upon us, the only people who will be able to have freedom over their bodies are white women because they have money. Any time only people who are light-skinned, white, are able to vote in this country, I mean, these are — these subjects are the immediate threats to us, I mean, to everyone. And if everyone does not start feeling a sense of urgency about taking some action, and that’s why I’m so happy to be with LaTosha today. Because she’s a woman of action. She takes action. Yesterday, I was able to take some action to come out of my comfort zone, but it’s going to take more than Hank Johnson and LaTosha Brown and Joyce Beatty and others to come out of their comfort zones and to confront this evil that is right there in front of our face and is ready to choke us to death unless we can show that we’re not going to lay down and let it happen, we’re actually going to seize control. This is our country. We built this country. And so, nobody has a claim to it bigger and better than us. And so, it’s up to us now to save this country, if not just for ourselves, but for our fellow man.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett