On Monday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC host Al Sharpton hyped liberal attacks on changes to voting laws as he declared that "Republicans have gone on a rampage," and singled out a recently passed law in North Carolina as the "worst attack on voting rights since the Jim Crow era."
Referring to the recent Supreme Court ruling against part of the Voting Rights Act, Sharpton complained:
Since that ruling, Republicans have gone on a rampage with states all across the South running wild to restrict voting. That includes North Carolina, where any moment now, the Republican governor is expected to sign into law the worst attack on voting rights since the Jim Crow era. This is outrageous.
After bringing aboard Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver as a guest, the MSNBC host accused Republicans of trying to "tak[e] away our right to vote" as he posed the question:
Are Republicans in these states and other states because they're not just southern states changing these laws, now on notice now that the Obama administration is not going to let them get away with taking away our right to vote?
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, July 29, PoliticsNation on MSNBC:
AL SHARPTON: Tonight's lead: fighting for voting rights. Today the President of the United States called civil rights leaders to the White House to say, "Are you ready to fight back?" I was there in that meeting, and I saw firsthand how the President is determined to hit back against right-wing efforts to block the vote in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to gut the Voting Rights Act.
Since that ruling, Republicans have gone on a rampage with states all across the South running wild to restrict voting. That includes North Carolina, where any moment now, the Republican governor is expected to sign into law the worst attack on voting rights since the Jim Crow era. This is outrageous. This is exactly the kind of blatant attempt to suppress the vote that the Obama administration has promised to fight against.
(ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL)
SHARPTON: The President and the Attorney General are calling on all of us to wake up, get up, and get active. This is about the fundamental right of our democracy. Fifty years after the march on Washington, we must not, we will not let them turn back the clock.
In the meeting today, Latino leaders, Asian leaders, African-American leaders, women sat together with the President and the Attorney General not for one segment, but for all Americans' right to vote to be protected. It is something Americans can and must unite around, and it should be bipartisan, because it gives everyone the protection of their voting rights.
(...)
SHARPTON: Congressman (Cleaver), let me start with you. Are Republicans in these states and other states because they're not just southern states changing these laws, now on notice now that the Obama administration is not going to let them get away with taking away our right to vote?
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center