he would not support a bill unless he could get some republican votes too. in the spirit of bipartisanship, he wrote letter with republican senator about the importance of both sides coming together for federal voting rights legislation. specifically, the re-authorization of the voting rights act that back in day was like a huge bipartisan thing. not so much anymore. this was joe manchin s grand bargain on voting rights. he said this is too ambitious. we need to work across the aisle. he tempered his own party s sort of big ambitious goals to bring republican senators in the fold. surely thought there s only two big play jor political parties in the united states and they will come together with me and do the bare minimum to sure up democracy. you probably see where i m going here. today the senate voted on a motion to proceed to debate on freedom to vote act. not to pass it, just debate it. every single republican voted
had the shelby decision, which really gutted the preclearance provision. it allowed states that had a history of voter discrimination to now be able to institute very restrictive voter i.d. laws, anti-voter laws in my opinion. and so i think that we saw in this past election, over 40 million americans don t believe that we had a fair and accurate election. and so i think that at the heart of this is that american people do not trust their electoral system. i think that john lewis bill, the john robert lewis voting rights advancement act, hr-4 and soon to be introduced hr-1 will do just that, restore federal oversight. you know, jonathan, voting rights used to not be a partisan issue. in fact, in 2006, a 25-year re-authorization took place under george w. bush. as you know, i invited the world
back to my hometown in 2015 for the 50th anniversary of the selma to montgomery march and george and laura bush wanted to be there. why? they were proud that under his tenure they reauthorized the voting rights act of 1965, for 25 years. but for shelby decision and the decision which compromises the vra undermining section 2 and the right to sue for discriminatory effect, these are things that are really bad. and i think american folks understand that. there s nothing more fundamental to our democracy, as you pointed out, bedrock of our democracy is the right to vote. is the right to vote. and that re-authorization passed unanimously out of congress. unanimously in the senate. in the senate. that would never happen today, it seems. congresswoman terri sewell, congresswoman sewell from alabama, thank you very much for coming back to the sunday show. coming up, my exclusive live on-set interview with the former
one of the key lessons for me and i hope my president and vice president are listening. there are times where the moment demands you put your back into it. right? that when we think about i ll go back even further. we think about the revolutionary war. and i m not, you know, add voluntary caughting violence in any way. but, you know, in defense of democracy and in defense of democracy gave his life. john lewis took bricks to the face on the bridge and cracked had his skull. others have taken arrests. george w. bush took on the most racist elements of his party to make sure that a clean re-authorization of the voting rights act was passed. and so for me i say myself this question, what is it that i am willing to do? what is it that i m willing to sacrifice to make sure that the right to vote, that our ability
2000 stopped the recount in florida. i want to talk about 1982. when reagan reauthorized and got his party together and reauthorized the voting rights act. and called it the crown jewel ow american liberties. i want to talk about 2006 when george w. bush despite attempts to water down the voting rights act among his party, passed a clean re-authorization of the voting rights act. by a majority of the folks in the house and the senate. right? if you re talking about doing everything that you can to make sure that we protect american democracy, right, we look to he took two bullets in the chest in defense of american o democracy. john lewis whose name was envoeked. who took a brick to the face. right? reagan and bush who again stood up to their party because they understood how important that or is. what i did not hear is what the president of the united states in this moment is willing to do in order to make sure that we pass the for the people act and