Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) is railing against Republican lawmakers in his state for advocating for voting restrictions calling the push “Jim Crow in new clothes.”
“Some politicians did not approve of the choice made by the majority of voters in a hard-fought election in which each side got the chance to make its case to the voters,” Warnock said during his maiden speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday.
He added, “Rather than adjusting their agenda, rather than changing their message, they are busy trying to change the rules. We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we’ve ever seen since the Jim Crow era. This is Jim Crow in new clothes.”
Watch his speech below:
Warncok accused politicians in Georgia and others of launching a “full-fledged assault on voting rights.”
He added, “They are focused on winning at any cost — even the cost of the democracy itself. I submit that it is the job of each citizen to stand up for the voting rights of every citizen, and it is the job of this body to do all that it can to defend the viability of our democracy.”
Last week Georgia’s Republican-controlled state Senate passed a piece of legislation limiting mail-in voting to primarily elderly residents and to those who are disabled or out of town on Election Day.
The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law reports lawmakers have introduced 253 bills with provisions that restrict voting access in 43 states.
During his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, Trump suggested Election Day should be the only day for voting, as IJR previously reported.
“There should be a legitimate reason for someone to vote absentee,” he said.
Trump also advocated for eliminating mail-in voting, requiring identification from voters when they vote in person, and universal signature matching for anyone who votes by absentee ballot.