On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd used to tragic murders in Charleston, South Carolina to question Governor Nikki Haley about her support for voter ID laws in her state.
Todd used the murders to play up how “one of the issues of Clementa Pinckney was the voting rights laws. That's been a big controversy with a lot of African-Americans, particularly, and with a lot of Republican governors.”
The Meet the Press moderator proceeded to ask Governor Haley if as a result of the horrific murders, “Do you see the issue differently now? Do you understand what some African-Americans believe these voter ID laws end up being a way to single them out or disenfranchise them?”
For her part, Haley rejected the premise of Todd’s question and insisted that while the Confederate flag “coming down was a moment that I felt like needed to happen. That doesn't mean that I philosophically changed the way I think about other things. I've never seen the voter ID as a racial issue, for whites, for blacks, for Asians, for anyone.”
The South Carolina governor continued to push back against Todd’s exploitation of the South Carolina shooting to call for a reexamination of voter ID laws in South Carolina:
What I see is it's an issue where people prove who they are. And I think that's something very important for our democracy. It's important to America. And I think that, having to show a picture ID when you get on a plane, and having to show a picture ID when you buy Sudafed, you absolutely should have to show a picture ID to vote. And what we've done in South Carolina is make sure that it's easy for people to vote, that we don't make it hard for anyone. But we think that's an important part to the process.
See relevant transcript below.
NBC's Meet the Press
July 12, 2015
CHUCK TODD: You know, one of the issues of Clementa Pickney was the voting rights laws. That's been a big controversy with a lot of African-Americans, particularly, and with a lot of Republican governors. Do you see the issue differently now? Do you understand what some African-Americans believe these voter ID laws end up being
a way to single them out or disenfranchise them?
GOV. NIKKI HALEY: You know, the flag coming down was a moment that I felt like needed to happen. That doesn't mean that I philosophically changed the way I think about other things. I've never seen the voter ID as a racial issue, for whites, for blacks, for Asians, for anyone. What I see is it's an issue where people prove who they are.
And I think that's something very important for our democracy. It's important to America. And I think that, having to show a picture ID when you get on a plane, and having to show a picture ID when you buy Sudafed, you absolutely should have to show a picture ID to vote. And what we've done in South Carolina is make sure that it's easy for people to vote, that we don't make it hard for anyone. But we think that's an important part to the process.
