CLAY: So, we are going to spend now several days — potentially the rest of the week — engaging in a form of kabuki theater in the Senate where it is quite clear that there are not 50 votes to change the filibuster rules, and as a result of there not being those votes to change the filibuster rules, there is no way to pass this voting rights legislation. That doesn’t mean that Democrats are going to go quietly into that good night.
They are going to spend an entire week while we have all sorts of serious issues that are actually taking place on this issue belaboring the point arguing that our democracy is at stake and their allies in the media are going to continue to make that argument, too, including CNN, Don Lemon. Here is CNN making the case last night to their audience — which, by the way, they have lost 90% of their audience since January of 2021. One year later, the 10% of people that are still listening to Don Lemon, this is what he told them.
LEMON: Inevitably you get the politicians, especially ones in Washington now who are blocking the — you know, the people’s access to the voting booth, and they want to use Dr. King conveniently. They are the biggest hypocrites on the planet. Because if Sinema and Manchin really want to honor the legacy of Dr. King and all of the people who fought for civil rights and voting rights in this country, what they would do is do a carve-out for voting rights with the filibuster.
That’s what they would do. But for some reason, they are mired in tradition, and they are stuck with these rules that are backwards. And as the former president said at John Lewis’ memorial service, he’s a relic of Jim Crow, the filibuster has been used to block civil rights legislation forever. And so we need to stop that. We evolve. Just because there is a rule doesn’t mean that that rule can’t change.
BUCK: The filibuster is not a relic. It’s just crazy. It’s just crazy, right? The filibuster is not a relic of Jim Crow. That’s just historically, flatly incorrectly. So start with that. Look, here’s the game. Here’s the game. Now how they never give us any specifics, Clay, right? It’s always they’re blocking people from access to the polls and they’re trying to connect it to the 1960s.
Trying to connect it to Jim Crow before that and make it seem as though there are people standing at the polling places with shotguns over their shoulders saying, you know, “Your kind aren’t allowed to vote here” to people saying, you know, the stuff, the darkest parts of America’ past. That’s not what’s happening at all. That’s not the reality of America today.
They’re never honest about what’s happening here. They never tell you who is not actually allowed to vote and what the problems occur. Voter ID? They make people show voter ID in a sense now, identification to get into restaurants all over New York City or Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C. So for health reasons ID and a vaccine, of course, are fine, but for our sacred democracy, our elections? That’s one part of it.
But also notice how you can never placate them. So they don’t tell us what the problem is, but even if you were — and this is just the Democrats pretending to be the great heroes of it civil rights movement when, as we know, the Democrats were the ones in favor of suppressing minority votes, the black vote, in favor of segregation, in favor of Jim Crow, in favor of slavery. The Democrat Party has all of that in its past.
But okay. So, Clay, let’s say they allow 30 days — just pick a random state, 30 days — of early voting. In the Democrat formulation, I can say, Clay, “You know what? The Republicans are blocking access to the polls. They’re being racist, ’cause I want 45 days of early voting,” and it never stops. You give 45. “Okay, I want 60. If you don’t agree with my 60 days of early voting, it’s racist!” Don’t you see? This is the game they play, and because people don’t actually get into the specifics of what the rules are, they’re never held to account for the rhetoric they use, which is all just one big virtue signal.
CLAY: Are there people who want to vote that are not able to vote? That, to me, is the essence of the question that no one actually asks. And I ask that question in a straightforward way because I have lived all over the city of Nashville in my life. I have lived in majority black voting districts, the heart of inner-city Nashville. I lived there. No issue voting. I now live in suburban Nashville. No issue voting. I don’t think there are very many people out there who say, “Hey…”
Where I think of as having the greatest technological capabilities known to man, Tennessee — and I’m kind of saying that in a joking way. But, in all honesty, who are these people that want to vote that are otherwise being not allowed to vote? I just… I don’t ever hear anybody say, “Hey, I was going to go vote but there’s some issue that kept me from voting other than I just chose not to do it.”
Voting to me, Buck… You tell me if you disagree in your experience in New York. Voting is really simple when you want to do it early — which I have done a ton of times; early voting goes on forever here in my state of Tennessee, which is a red state; it’s easy to go early vote — or whether I want to vote on Election Day, which I also have done.
And truth be told, I like voting on Election Day the past few elections just because there’s something that feels quintessentially American and democratic to me about being able to vote on actual Election Day. That’s what I did on 2020. That’s what I did, I believe, in 2016. But I’ve also voted early in my life. I just… I want to know who are these people that have a great deal of interest in voting that are right now unable to vote. I get the sense that those people basically don’t exist.
BUCK: You could also take the argument in a similar direction to what I have done with people on the left to prove the absurdity of so many of their claims on illegal immigration. I’ll always ask them, “Okay, what’s too many when it comes to illegal immigration, and who doesn’t get to stay?” Be really specific about it, right? If you agree that we should have immigration laws, who is going to be deported?
Because if you don’t deport people, then you don’t have immigration laws; there’s no penalty for the breaking of those laws. When you ask a lib, “What voter integrity protections do you support?” the answer is none. Maybe they’ll come up with one if they think long and hard about it, but getting people that move out of a district, Clay, or even purging dead people from voter rolls? Oh, that sounds problematic! That sounds like something that the racist GOP would do.
ID at the polls? Oh, that’s not good. Only allowing voting to go up to Election Day and not afterwards? Oh, that sounds like racist GOP stuff to me. You’ll notice everything that we could possibly do… Signature match? Everything you could do to make sure… As you’ve seen, elections can be very, very close, very, very tight. Thousands of votes separating victory from defeat for presidential election, never mind a congressional or statewide election.
They oppose it at every turn because they’ve created this sense, created this phantom in their minds that there’s tremendous voter suppression, and even when the data doesn’t bear it out, when it shows that you have all-time minority turnout in a state after sometimes they’ll pass voter integrity protections in that state. I mean, the voter ID, Clay, is supported by huge majorities. It’s not even close. Huge majority of the American people when they’re asked about this. But Chuck Schumer acts like voter ID… He says that it’s like a return to the era of Jim Crow. You hear the rhetoric they use, and you understand how these people are such psychos about covid because they’re just psychos about politics in general.
CLAY: Well, and to your point, as soon as you’re demanding that I show an ID to be able to eat at McDonald’s, I’m sorry. Being able to require an ID to vote doesn’t seem like a bridge too far. Right? If you ask the average person out there — and you’re correct, white, black, Asian, Hispanic. People overwhelmingly support the idea of voter ID laws. But if you ask the average person out there, “Hey, which seems more legitimate, show your ID in order to vote or show your ID in order to get a Big Mac at a McDonald’s to prove you have been vaccinated?” I think most people would say, “Hey, ID at voting seems like a more legitimate policy to follow than ID in order to get a Chicken McNuggets.”