Schumer Compares McConnell to ‘Southern Senators in the 60s’ After Voting Rights Bill Fails to Advance

Senate Republicans blocked a procedural vote to begin debate on voting rights legislation, and immediately afterwards Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer went on a tear saying they’ve “launched a partisan blockade” yet again.

He said Republicans across the country are “engaged in the most sweeping voter suppression in 80 years,” all because of “Donald Trump’s big lie.”

Schumer even compared Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to Southern senators decades ago “who defended states’ rights”:

The Republican leader told reporters that “regardless of what may be happening in some states, there is no rationale for federal intervention.” The Republican leader flatly stated that no matter what the states do to undermine our democracy, voter suppression laws, phony audits, partisan takeovers of local election boards, the Senate should not act. My colleagues, my colleagues, if senators 60 years ago held that the federal government should never intervene to protect voting rights, this body would have never passed the Voting Rights Act. The Republican leader uses the language and the logic of the Southern senators in the 60s who defended states’ rights, and it is an indefensible position for any senator, any senator, let alone the minority leader to hold.

The New York Democrat said he will continue to push for voting rights, but added that “voter suppression has become part of the official platform of the Republican party.”

You can watch above, via CNN.

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