Democrats Gear Up To Bring Voting Rights Bills To The Floor This Week

well well when we have the discussion about who's responsible i will not absolve the 50 republicans in the united states senate from responsibility for upholding one of the most basic and important tenets of our democracy which is free and fair elections and access to the ballot for all eligible voters what about senator manchin what about senator i don't think anyone should be absolved from the responsibility of preserving and protecting our democracy [Music] good morning and welcome to the cross connection everyone now the seemingly never-ending fight to pass federal voting rights legislation is taking on new intensity on this mlk weekend as senate democrats gear up to bring versions of both the john lewis voting rights advancement act and the freedom to vote act they're trying to bring that to the floor this uh to the senate floor this tuesday now this comes on the heels of president's trip to georgia where he roasted senate republicans for their intentional legislative obstruction and their calculated long-time destruction of voting rights but the speech as you all will remember was notably not attended by several prominent civil rights groups which has sparked debate on the best strategy and tactics to employ even when you're on the same side of the divide now with democrats at odds on how to proceed and republicans united in their plan to pretty much dismantle democracy what's the plan to make sure that the very voters who delivered joe biden to power in 2020 can help his party maintain control of congress this year joining me now derek johnson president and ceo of the naacp and executive director of black voters matter uh cliff albright and angela rye politics and cultural commentator and host of the podcast on one with angela ryan now we should note cliff and angela are actually in phoenix where voting rights activists are holding a rally today which is dr martin luther king's actual birthday all right thanks everybody for being here derek i want to kick it off with you there's new reporting out this morning that you uh and other civil rights leaders met with senator kirsten cinema tell us what happened in that meeting well we tried to make the case how important this was the fact that a procedural rule should not block substance of rights to votes that she among many others have supported or they claim to support voting rights but to say they're unwilling to remove the filibuster or do a carve out is nonsensical to say the least uh and that was earlier this week in fact that was on wednesday but we seen what happened after the fact both she and manchin reverted back to uh their original posture as well as the 50 republicans 16 of whom supported reauthorization in 2006 but holy fast because they are too myopic to expand the party's platform to to attract new voters they want to suffocate the pipeline uh to access to the ballot box yeah you know this is an interesting challenge angela because look cinema is a democrat but she is in many ways upholding white supremacy you and i both know what the filibuster was originally used for take a listen uh to some remarks that she made this week and then we'll talk about it when one party need only negotiate with itself policy will inextricably be pushed from the middle towards the extremes and i understand there are some on both sides of the aisle that prefer that outcome but i do not i don't think i can roll my eyes hard enough and you kind of just want to say girl bye but angela i'll let you take it what's your thoughts on the senator's position you know it's um rooted in falsehoods right like this is we're talking about voting rights we're not talking even about abortion which we all know has been historically divisive in this country what we also know is that voting rights has been supported on a bipartisan level in both chambers of congress since 1965 when a democrat signed the bill into law so what i would tell senator cinema is to please reflect on your history not not a wobbly voice not an emotional plea for people to remove or to not remove the filibuster when you just could cross that hurdle right this i'm talking about this year they could cross that hurdle so why can't you do that when it comes time to protect voting rights the other like serious mistake that senators are making right now is deciding that this is somehow a black civil rights bill it is not this is a bill to ensure that this country continues to move down the road towards democracy i agree with jesse jackson jr who recently said we were moving towards democracy and this is a way to ensure that we're back on that right road it is a way to ensure back on that right road and and in this uh case she is a hurdle on that road cliff um you and my my good friend latasha brown uh the co-eds of black voters matter you guys opted to not attend president biden's speech this week um i'm curious i want to give you an opportunity to address uh some of the the vitriol that was directed your way but in a much more collegiate atmosphere my colleague jonathan capehart wrote about um your decision to not go um and he essentially said that you know activists shouldn't be turning their um or shouldn't be rallying against joe biden harris i don't know if that's what you guys are doing but essentially that you guys should organize uh against cinema and mansion which of course is what you've always done and what you're doing today how do you respond to people who felt like your absence was disrespectful um to madam vice president kamala harris and and president joe biden yeah good morning tiffany yeah you know it's not about disrespect right but it is about accountability and what we were basically saying was that we thought that it wasn't the time for for another speech all throughout 2021 it would have been a great time for speeches but it wasn't time for another speech and it was a time for action right the kinds of actions that you know we've seen since the speech one he came out and he said that he unequivocally called for modifying the filibuster that was a good step right a little late but a good step but more importantly the actions that they started to take afterwards which was you know what did they do they they met with he met with the caucus the democratic caucus in the senate we had been asking him to do that for months uh they started making phone calls and meeting with folks he had meetings with manchester united which you had been asking him to do for months hey i'd even like for him to tell him hey y'all let's go to camp david you know if camp david could be used to solve international conflict surely if we spend two three days in camp david i can find out from y'all what we can do to modify this filibuster so we wanted actions and that's what our position was it wasn't about disrespect it was all about having people be held accountable the same way the movement dr king at clc stick would often have to do the same things the whole folks accountable but it was very frustrating um you all know how it is i know all three of you all know how it is on on social media and you get folks that'll come after you but to see folks coming after my dear sister fran comrade latasha brown who she and i have been doing this work for for three decades you know for three decades we've been up in these streets and when i say in these streets that includes some dirt roads of alabama that we used to walk on you know 30 years ago derrick knows about there and so you know for folks to be coming after after her or after me talking about you know where's your work like for real you know and so um you know and to say why don't y'all go to west virginia we've been in west virginia i've been a four-time i've been in west virginia four times this year we've supported groups in west virginia we've supported groups in arizona we've been talking about mansion and cinema all year long so to hear folks talking about why aren't you talking about mansion and cinema it just really showed that folks just they weren't paying attention to the work but the last thing i'll say about cinema is this that speech is fine she can give a speech man she can do a memo but at the end of the day you know me and my crew would say you got to stop just selling wolf tickets at the end of the day she got a vote right we can't what they do is that they will give these speeches and then they hope that that will stop the process and that chuck schumer won't move it forward and actually bring this up for debate and for a vote she's going to have to stand on that floor and not just give a speech but actually debate her senate colleagues about the merits not just of the bill but the filibuster reform that's why the process needs to continue to move forward yeah and we shouldn't uh leave the republicans out of this right because they are obstructionists they are letting democracy fall so mansion and cinema are certainly a problem some other senators too uh who have not gotten the smoke that they perhaps deserve who are also faltering on advancing voting rights um but derek you know i wanted you a part of this conversation today because these type of ideological differences have always existed as i'm sure my fellow panelists know martin luther king's poll ratings were lower than donald trump's at the time of his death there's always been people to dispute uh how you go about achieving equality in this country it pained me to see the vitriol directed towards black voters matter who's been i know fewer people more dedicated for power and equality for black people um but derek you did opt to go to the speech do you feel uh confident that this administration has done everything they can do to advance voting rights uh and what is the plan now um now that we're here well i think this administration has been lackluster in protecting voting rights it came out the gate with a covet package yes we thought that was necessary the very next thing they did was the infrastructure bill but infrastructure bills should have included election infrastructure in which we we advise that we push for that if we can create an infrastructure opportunity in 2001 would help america vote act given every state voting machine the requirements for ada compliance and proposed location requirements we could have done the same thing with making sure that every jurisdiction had the type of machines necessary to look forward think about in 2001 we gave states money to buy electronic machines none of us on this line will keep a computer more than five years and yet we expect the states to still operate with those old machines but with those machines as a requirement you you attach on all the requirements to carry out federal elections within what forged jurisdictions to do the same so this this administration have been lackluster we had this conversation with them when they first came into office we had this conversation with the administration in june we had this conversation in august we had this conversation in september i could go on and on so at the end of the day political parties are nothing more than vehicles the black community a vehicle for agendas the black communities we have a clear agenda protect our right to vote protect our young people on the streets from police brutality and council student loan debt that is not attached to a political party that is something that black americans say we need desperately and this administration have not stepped up in those three key areas all right well angela i want to get you in here so we're going to go take a quick break so keep it right here because this conversation is going to continue on the other side of the break don't go anywhere [Music] you

Channel: MSNBC

Views: 71,299

Keywords: Cross Connection, Tiffany Cross, MSNBC

Id: N8cS8Rzvti4

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 15 2022