Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) rebuked President Joe Biden and other Democrats for referring to state election reforms as “Jim Crow” laws, reminding them it is their party that is the party of Jim Crow and voter suppression.
Paul urged more state legislatures during a Heritage Foundation virtual event Tuesday titled “Safeguarding Our Elections” to act to secure election integrity. The senator also called on Americans to push their state lawmakers to pass such laws:
The Kentucky Republican criticized Biden and other Democrats for referring to state election reform efforts as racist “Jim Crow” laws, which prohibited black Americans in the South from voting, as well as from obtaining housing, education, and job opportunities.
“For Democrats to stand up and claim ‘Jim Crow’ should be called out on the face of it is ridiculous, and we should throw it right back in their face,” Paul asserted. “Not only is this not Jim Crow; the Democrat Party is the party of Jim Crow”:
Paul continued:
You have to look long and hard in history to find a Republican that voted for a Jim Crow law. In my state, when they passed Jim Crow laws at the turn of the last century — 1900, 1905 — these despicable laws were passed entirely by Democrats. Every Republican voted no. Unfortunately, we only had a handful of Republicans in Kentucky at the time, and we also had every African American in our state was a Republican opposed to Jim Crow laws.
“So, I think it’s insulting that they can try to get away with calling any of this ‘Jim Crow’ because we have more people voting now, more access to voting than at any time in our history,” Paul said, adding comments about state election reform legislation requiring voter identification:
There’s no evidence the African American vote is declining or that anything done in any of these bills restricts their voting. And, frankly, I find it insulting to anyone who is African American to say, “Oh, somehow they are incapable of getting a driver’s license.” There are very few people in our country without driver’s license,s and I think that it’s insulting to any race to sort of say, “Oh, you guys are not capable of getting a driver’s license.”
The senator continued, saying that since the 2020 election, he has been talking to lawmakers in dozens of states, including his own state of Kentucky, to pass election reform laws.
“One additional item that we added into ours, we individualized the absentee ballot, we defined it, we encouraged in-person voting, and we also did expand the vote in the sense that we allowed more days of early voting, same as Georgia did,” Paul explained.
Paul’s remarks during the Heritage event came following numerous comments from Biden, other Democrats, and left-wing celebrity activists, who suggested Jim Crow laws are not only identified with the Republican Party, but that Republicans are attempting to resurrect Jim Crow through state election reform measures.
During his first presidential press conference in March, Biden said Republican efforts to ensure basic election integrity were “un-American” and “sick,” making “Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”
He added he was “convinced” Democrats will be able to stop such election integrity measures.
At a Senate committee hearing on the Democrat bill S.1, dubbed the “For the People Act,” which would essentially federalize U.S. elections, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated, “Some of these voter suppression laws in Georgia and other Republican states smack of Jim Crow rearing its ugly head once again.”
“It is 160 years since the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments abolished slavery, and Jim Crow stills seems to be with us,” Schumer added. “The laws, their various cousins in Republican state legislatures across the country, are one of the greatest threats we have to modern democracy in America.”
On Sunday, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) continued that narrative when he told CNN’s State of the Union that Georgia’s new voting reforms are the “new Jim Crow.”
Breitbart News reported:
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Georgia passed sweeping new voting legislation, including many restrictions that some Democrats such as Sen. 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?”
“I would say to anybody, just look at the history, and it’s there,” Clyburn responded. “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 they can say anything they want to say about it,” Clyburn continued. “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”:
Similarly, pop star and left-wing political activist Cher said she believes Republicans have a “dream of white supremacy” and intend to “bring Jim Crow back.”
“VOTER SUPPRESSION [sic],” she tweeted. “2 Words That Define Immoral Republican Pols. They Bring Jim Crow Back…”
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