Markey: ‘Paranoid’ GOP Attempting ‘Carve Out the Voting Rights’ of Black and Brown Americans

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports” that “paranoid” Republicans are attempting to take away the voting rights of Black and Brown Americans because two Democrats won their U.S. Senate races in Georgia.

Jackson said, “I want to ask you about voting rights. As you know, President Biden put this front and center those Texas Democrats have put this front and center. They’re calling for a carve-out on the filibuster. You have long called for abolishing the filibuster, at least you have lately. What does that look like specifically, this narrow cave on constitutional issues? Is that too vague for you? How do you define that? Do you see getting eventually Joe Manchin on board on something that narrow?”

Markey said, “Ultimately, what President Biden did yesterday was just lay out of the case that Republicans are contracting this out to state legislatures to carve out the voting rights of, especially Black and Brown Americans. It’s a crisis in democracy, which is unfolding before our eyes. It is absolutely imperative that the United States Congress acts to restore and strengthen access to the ballot.”

He continued, “So if that requires a repeal of the filibuster, we have to repeal the filibuster. We cannot allow for the Republican Party to use the 60 vote margin that has to be reached to in order to pass strengthen voting rights in our country to be the obstacle to block the erosion of rights going on right now in Texas, in Arizona, in Florida, in Georgia. In red state after red state, they are paranoid that what happened in Georgia when Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won is the prediction of what will happen in state after state across red America. If that is what the Republicans are going to do, then the filibuster must go so we can strengthen voting rights.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN