Raphael Warnock Claims He Has ‘Never Been Opposed to Voter ID’

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 20: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) (L) speaks during a news conference
Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) claimed Thursday that he has “never been opposed to voter ID,” ignoring his own history of bashing “unnecessary and discriminatory voter ID laws,” describing them as both “secretive” and “subversive.”

Warnock, speaking of Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) compromise proposal to the far-left’s “For the People Act,” praised the measure and said he was “encouraged” by recent developments. However, Warnock also claimed to have never opposed voter ID — a blatant falsehood, as he has spoken out against it routinely in the past.

“I have never been opposed to voter ID,” Warnock claimed.

What is more, the Georgia Democrat claimed to not know of anyone who opposes voter ID, despite Democrats’ constant objections to such election integrity safeguards, frequently harkening to the era of Jim Crow. President Biden himself has referred to basic election integrity measures as both “unAmerican” and “sick.”

“And in fact, I don’t know anybody who is — who believes people shouldn’t have to prove that they are who they say they are. But what has happened over the years is people have played with common sense identification and put into place restrictive measures intended not to preserve the integrity of the outcome, but to select, certain group,” he continued.

Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has also demonstrated support for Manchin’s proposal and claimed to support voter ID but added, “I reject restrictive voter ID designed to keep people out of the process.”

However, Warnock’s assertion, that he has never rejected voter ID, is patently false.

In an October 19, 2018 piece titled “Attacks on voting hit at soul of our democracy,” Warnock wrote,” More than a decade ago, Republican legislators in the state of Georgia … led the way in turning the clock back on voting rights by passing unnecessary and discriminatory voter ID laws,” later referring to such laws as “onerous”:

Further, in a July 2020 piece penned by Jaime Harrison, Mike Espy, and Raphael Warnock, the trio, which included the lawmaker, claimed that “voting rights continue to be under attack in far more secretive, subversive ways like Voter ID laws”:

More, in 2012, Warnock “called voter ID laws an affront to the memory of the civil rights leader” Martin Luther King Jr, according to the Boston Globe.

“You cannot celebrate Dr. King on Monday, and undermine people’s ability to vote on Super Tuesday,’’ Warnock said at the time.

“Lest we forget, Senator Warnock’s fear-mongering about Georgia’s election security laws is the reason that the MLB pulled their All-Star Game and draft from Atlanta, costing the city and its diverse businesses over $100 million in economic opportunities,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) said in a statement following Warnock’s assertion.

Warnock has publicly stood against states’ election integrity efforts, such as Georgia’s, which actually expanded voter access.

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