Yesterday, Senator Reverend Warnock joined Joy Reid, host of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, to talk about voting rights in Georgia following the state’s recent election
Senator Warnock also testified yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee urging swift action to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which he reintroduced earlier this month, and the Freedom to Vote Act
Senator Warnock also expressed sorrow for family of Laken Riley, advocated for Washington to consider bipartisan legislation to secure the U.S. southern border
Senator Reverend Warnock on The Reidout: “The state of Georgia actually doubled down on its voter suppression tactics”
Washington D.C. — Last night, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), joined Joy Reid, host of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” to discuss the urgent need to pass robust legislation to secure the right to vote for every eligible American. The Senator’s remarks followed his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation he reintroduced last week with Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL) that would restore the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that have been gutted by the Supreme Court. Additionally, following the passage of legislation in the House of Representatives that does not sufficiently address the humanitarian crisis on the U.S. southern border, during the interview the Senator discussed his support for efforts in Washington to debate and consider bipartisan legislation from the Senate to address the southern border emergency.
Watch video of Senator Warnock on “The ReidOut” HERE and HERE.
Read key excerpts from Senator Warnock’s interview on “The Reidout,” below:
ON VOTING RIGHTS
Joy Reid: “All of that happened despite the state being a marquee for voter suppression. Your governor, Brian Kemp, when he was Secretary of State, almost arithmetically, attempted to remove voters from the polls and then very ceremoniously signed a voter suppression law under a portrait of a plantation. […] What’s the state of voting rights in your state and nationally?”
Senator Reverend Warnock: “I reintroduced the John Lewis Voting Right Advancement Act just a few days ago, I testified regarding it in the Senate Judiciary hearing earlier today.”
SRW: “After I won, after Jon Ossoff won, the state of Georgia actually doubled down on its voter suppression tactics. And the question we have to ask ourselves is why and also how.”
SRW: “We know why, they looked at the power of us standing together, the movement of a multi racial democracy emerging in our country — the future of our country — and they went after it as one court has said in another hearing, with surgical precision, that’s what SB202 was about, it’s about voter suppression.”
SRW: “That’s why I reintroduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act a few days ago, and before that, the Freedom to Vote Act. We are seeing and we saw in my election, record voting turnout.”
SRW: “That doesn’t mean there isn’t voter suppression. The people just decided they weren’t going to have their voice silenced.”
ON IMMIGRATION
JR: “Let me ask you another question, because we know that one of the ways Donald Trump and Republicans are hoping to […] gain control of the Senate is through the immigration issue. What does this law (the Laken Riley Act) add to the current existing law?”
SRW: “Let me first of all just say, my heart goes out to that young women’s family. Laken Riley did not deserve what happened to her.”
SRW: “To answer your question succinctly, this (the Laken Riley Act) is smoke and mirrors by people who are not serious.”
SRW: “We had a bipartisan piece of legislation in front of us […] the only way to get comprehensive immigration reform, the only way to address the current crisis on the border, in a divided government is on a bipartisan basis.”
SRW: “So rather than demagoguing this tragic death by this young woman, they ought to get serious […] let’s pass some bipartisan legislation and deal with the crisis at the border.”