For MSNBC's Ali Velshi the sky might as well be falling, because on his Saturday he agreed with Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey that the country is at the point of no return on voting rights now that the Supreme Court has ruled that bans on ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting do not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Velshi blasted Justice Samuel Alito's opinion, painting it as a dark day for democracy. " You tweeted about this – Alito’s five-factor test. It should be emphasized that small ‘d’ democrats have nothing to celebrate after the decision in Brnovich. Alito’s opinion does weaken the Voting Rights Act, it endorses phantom fears about voter fraud, a phenomenon that barely exists."
This verbiage comes from Ian Millhiser at Vox, not Casey.
According to Velshi, "What are we, we're going down a weird road in America, where this phantom thing that started with the Big Lie that has extended into voter fraud is now becoming entrenched into law."
Of course, Alito didn't actually say fraud was rampant, just that the state has a legitimate interest in preventing it. Arizona's law was so uncontroversial that despite what President Biden said after the decision, his own lawyers agreed that neither provision violated Section 2 of the VRA.
That might be news to Velshi and to Senator Casey, who hyperbolically declared, "we reached a point now with the Supreme Court decisions and with the -- the advent of all of these -- what is it more than 400 voter suppression bills across the country, where we're at a point of no return. We're either going to preserve our democracy and thereby protect voter rights or protect the voter rights to preserve the democracy, or we’re not."
We're hanging by a thread!
Casey wasn't finished with outlandish remarks, claiming, "We've come to a point where Democrats have to stand up and get something done. Now, I think we can do that. Because it's apparent to me that Republicans are just going to endorse the voter suppression bills. And at its core we should be blunt about this, at its core these voter suppression bills are about white supremacy."
Velshi claimed this was obviously true, "It seems obvious what you just said."
He then deplored the fact that some Democrats, presumably Sens. Manchin and Sinema, fail to see the urgency of the situation, "You have some people in the Senate who are members of your party who probably need a little convincing of that...Because a lot of Americans have come to the conclusion you come to, that is Republicans seem to be on the wrong side of this issue for the wrong reasons."
If Velshi is genuinely concerned about the state of the VRA, he should be mad at the DNC for bringing a publicity stunt of a lawsuit it had no chance of winning.
This segment was sponsored by Jeep.
Here is a transcript of the July 3 show:
MSNBC
Velshi
9:30 AM ET
ALI VELSHI: Let me ask you about the -- the Supreme Court decision -- opinions that came out this we week. You tweeted about this – Alito’s five-factor test. It should be emphasized that small ‘d’ democrats have nothing to celebrate after the decision in Brnovich. Alito’s opinion does weaken the Voting Rights Act, it endorses phantom fears about voter fraud, a phenomenon that barely exists. What are we, we're going down a weird road in America, where this phantom thing that started with the Big Lie that has extended into voter fraud is now becoming entrenched into law.
BOB CASEY: Ali, we're -- we reached a point now with the Supreme Court decisions and with the -- the advent of all of these -- what is it more than 400 voter suppression bills across the country, where we're at a point of no return. We're either going to preserve our democracy and thereby protect voter rights or protect the voter rights to preserve the democracy or we’re not. We've come to a point where Democrats have to stand up and get something done. Now, I think we can do that. Because it's apparent to me that Republicans are just going to endorse the voter suppression bills. And at its core we should be blunt about this, at its core these voter suppression bills are about white supremacy and unfortunately it seems the Republican Party is becoming a one-or two-issue agenda party where they seem only interested in stopping Joe Biden's programs and especially on the caregiving issues and supporting voter suppression bills.
VELSHI: It seems obvious what you just said. You have some people in the Senate who are members of your party who probably need a little convincing of that. Are you involved in any of those conversations with some colleagues who think that we really still need to continue to try and be as bipartisan as we can with respect to voting rights? Because a lot of Americans have come to the conclusion you come to, that is Republicans seem to be on the wrong side of this issue for the wrong reasons.
