🔰Stacey Abrams: We Need A Carve-Out For The Filibuster To Protect Our Democracy

Jim Crow in the 21st century is now a sinister combination of voter suppression and election subversion. And they're targeting not just voters of color, as I said, but every voter who doesn't vote the way they want. President Biden today at the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington described in crystal clear terms the unrelenting assault on voting rights across this country. One day after Republican senators unanimously blocked new voting rights legislation that would combat restrictive voting laws. Biden called Republican senators obstruction un-American and Vice President Kamala Harris stressed why new legislation is urgently needed. As we all know, in 2013, the Voting Rights Act that Dr. King and so many others fought for was gutted by the Supreme Court decision in Shelby v. Holder. And to be sure, we should not have to keep fighting so hard to secure our fundamental rights, but fight we must and fight we will. Joining me now is Stacey Abrams, founder of Fair Fight Action and author of Our Time Is Now, which is now available in paperback. And Stacey, it's always great to see you. I'm going to put up the map of the 19 states that have passed restrictive voting laws. In order to do something about that, Joe Manchin said that he could get bipartisan support for something called the Freedom to Vote Act that has lots of good stuff in it, also has voter ID in it. People are not too thrilled about that. That didn't even get one single Republican vote. So where we are is that if there is no change to the filibuster, the Voting Rights Act is basically DOA. If nothing passes and we are exactly where we are right now, next November, what happens to our democracy and these access to the ballot? If we do not take action, if we do not have minimum standards passed across this country, we know that these 19 states are the tip of the spear. There are 48 states that have considered legislation and there are 400 bills floating out there. We will watch the slow motion demise of our democracy accelerate dramatically, starting as early as January, as legislatures come back into session and see how successful their colleagues have been at undermining our democracy. We will watch a complete collapse. And here's why this isn't a partisan issue. If you look at that map, some of those places don't have a large phalanx of voters of color or young voters. But when you attack democracy, you hurt everyone. And whether you are the intended target or not, when you break democracy, you break it for all voters. And that is why the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are so essential. And one of the things that Republicans are doing the most aggressively is, of course, gerrymandering, which seems to me they're doing it sort of blatantly on the basis of race. I mean, in Texas, they literally said, if you're Hispanic, we're just going to actually reduce your representation directly. If you are African-American, we're going to reduce the number of districts with a majority of your folks in it to zero. That's about as blatant some racial gerrymandering as I've ever seen. I wonder if Democrats are alarmed enough in Washington about all of these developments, because it's sort of like election apartheid. They're essentially saying we're just going to make it so that white voters are so advantaged that we can't lose. What we have seen happen is that all 50 senators are on board with moving this legislation forward. The Freedom to Vote Act actually expands access to the right to vote, defends our democracy, and indeed addresses these extreme gerrymanders that have been essentially greenlighted by the Supreme Court, first in the 2020 decision that permitted partisan gerrymandering, and then the Brnovich decision recently. But what we know is that to push back against these, to unrig the maps, to guarantee access to the right to vote, we must have action. I appreciate and applaud the fact that Senator Manchin wanted to bring everyone together, because this is not a partisan issue. This is a people issue. This is a patriotism issue. But the fact that they have now said resoundingly they will not stand for Americans means that we have to, as Democrats, speak up for everyone. And we know that the Freedom to Vote Act is overwhelmingly supported, that the provisions that expand access to democracy guarantee the freedom to vote, unrig the maps. All of those provisions are provisions that are uniformly and resoundingly supported by Democrats, Republicans, and independents. And so it is a good thing. If Democrats have to go it alone, do it alone, because you're doing it for America. And that is the message we're trying to push. That is the message we know we need to send. So doing it alone would involve getting all the Democrats and some of the independents who've been pretty clear that they aren't willing to do anything to touch the filibuster. Angus King was just on Rachel Maddow's show the other night saying he's nervous about getting rid of the filibuster. He's reluctant to do it. Obviously, Manchin and Sinema basically have wrapped their arms around the filibuster as if it's a Christmas present. They'll never let it go. So I wonder if Democrats are not willing to even change the filibuster. I feel like we're at an impasse. What do we do? They're not willing to do anything. We've seen carveouts of the filibuster before. And I argued in an op-ed a few months ago that a carveout for democracy is one that should be not only tenable, but acceptable. And that carveout can happen. I agree, actually, that we need to get rid of the entire filibuster. But I understand the protective nature, saying that it's one of the few mechanisms we have, because we have such narrow majorities or minorities when power switches in the Senate. But we need to restore the Senate. And that means restoring it to a functioning body, not a body that is held hostage by a minority of a minority. And that is what we have to work on. When ten people can decide the future of our nation, we have to restore the functionality of the Senate. And I do believe that the appetite is there among Democrats to have the conversation about how we restore the Senate. That doesn't mean getting rid of the filibuster writ large. It doesn't mean we can solve every problem. But if we do not protect the basics of our democracy, which are under attack by not only attacking our voters, but attacking our systems, we are watching the erosion of our democracy before our eyes. And I do believe the Democrats are willing to fight to restore our democracy. Have you had conversations with Senator Chuck Schumer and with Manchin and Sinema themselves to that end? And have they indicated a willingness to take action and do a carveout in order to restore democracy, in order to allow people to have the right to vote? My work is to talk to every single power broker and policymaker in Washington to get good done. And I'm gonna continue to have conversations about what needs to be done. I'm also gonna have conversations with the American people. We need to keep the pressure on. That's why our freedom to vote fall is out there. We need folks to call 833-465-7142, 833-465-7142, and call your senators and tell them that you need us to restore the Senate and that we need to do a carveout for the filibuster to protect our democracy. It's not just about my voice, it's about the voice of every American demanding that our nation do its job and that our leaders do their jobs. We will be watching with bated breath what happens. It is the most important thing, whether we have a democracy or not. Stacey Abrams, thank you very much for being here.