Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Alex Witt Reports” that she believed former President Donald Trump was leading the effort of Republicans to undo the voting rights for “people of color.”
Witt said, “Let me get to voting rights. As you know, still very much on the minds of Americans. Hundreds of protesters were outside the White House this week, demanding the president make no more excuses for not passing federal voting rights protections. The urgency is clearly there. Will Congress listen? What might push the Senate to act, and when could it happen?”
Waters said, “Well, you know, I think it’s unfair to think that all of the work has to be done by the president. He certainly must do everything he can to encourage, to leverage, to get what needs to be done, to insure that voting rights are protected. But it’s really for the most part, it’s on the Republicans. They have not only pursued every effort all over this country in these state legislatures to undo our voting rights, whether you’re talking about doing away with early voting days, whether you’re talking about the long lines and the reduction of polling places, whether you’re talking about, you know, this exact match, if the i is not dotted, then that is thrown out as a registration. And so this is unfair.”
She added, “This is taking us back to Jim Crow years. So we’re going to work very hard. I wish the American public understanding the Constitution and the work that has been done by the citizens of this country for so many years to correct the wrongs of the past, I hope that they will take that into consideration and they will not try to undo the voting rights and eliminate the ability for people of color in particular to have a rightful place in participating in voting. So it’s work. But again, I want people to take a look at who’s causing this problem with voting rights. It is not the Democrats. It is not the president. It’s the Republicans led by Trump. So we have got to address this. We have got to face it, understand it for what it is, and people have got to step up all over the country and say this is not right. We’re not going to tolerate it. We want this country to live up to the Constitution, voting rights for everyone.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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