Obama Rips Republicans on Voting Rights: ‘In the Aftermath of an Insurrection, With Our Democracy on the Line…’

 
Barack Obama

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Former President Barack Obama hit Republicans on Monday for planning to filibuster voting rights legislation Democrats have been pushing in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said there will be a procedural vote on Tuesday, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected the For the People Act Democrats have backed and the compromise proposal offered by Joe Manchin.

In a tele-town hall with activists and former Attorney General Eric Holder, per NBC News, Obama invoked the January 6th rioting at the Capitol building to slam Republicans on the issue:

“Think about this: In the aftermath of an insurrection, with our democracy on the line and many of the same Republican senators going along with the notion that somehow there were irregularities and problems with legitimacy in our most recent election, they’re suddenly afraid to even talk about these issues and figure out a solution on the floor of the Senate,” Obama said.

“That’s not acceptable,” he added.

Obama even said, “The violence that occurred in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th should remind us we can’t take our democracy for granted.”

In a recent CNN interview the former president said he thought “there were guard rails” and Republicans would speak out about the more disturbing things Donald Trump did, but that didn’t happen. He brought up January 6th in particular and said, “Suddenly you now have large portions of an elected Congress going along with the falsehood that there were problems with the election.”

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Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac