For The 11th Hour host Stephanie Ruhle, it’s head’s she wins, tails you lose on the question of whether Georgia’s new election law suppresses the vote. On her Monday MSNBC show, Ruhle welcomed Nse Ufot, the CEO of the Stacey Abrams-created New Georgia Project, to argue that Georgia’s record shattering early voting records prove Abrams was correct about the law.
After introducing Ufot, Ruhle asked, “Early voting turnout out in Georgia’s primaries has already set records. Now, Republicans argue this proves that the election law they passed last year is not suppressing votes. Democrats have argued they’ve just had to work a lot harder. Who’s right?”
In the least surprising answer of all time, Ufot declared, “I'd say that Leader Abrams is right, with the package that you just showed. That again, it is not about stopping voting. That it's about making it more difficult for certain types of Americans to participate in our democracy, to participate in our elections.”
Interestingly, when referring to the 2020 election, Ufot reminded Ruhle that Donald Trump “lost in the great state of Georgia.” Meanwhile, Abrams called Georgia “the worst state to live.”
Unintentional hilarity aside, Ufot declared the GOP’s intention was “To discourage people from participating, and to again, inject confusion, and to invalidate and cancel enough votes to continue to swing elections. And quite frankly, Georgians aren't having it.”
Ruhle agreed that record voter turnout meant the law was suppressive, “Over the weekend, my colleague, Joy Reid, put, said something pretty interesting. Where she said, black voters vote sometimes in self-defense, to preserve their rights including voting history, access to health care. Tell me what you see in Georgia, because sometimes we hear the argument, people aren't getting enough, they're not going to vote because their voices aren't being heard. And Joy argued that sometimes you need to vote to preserve the rights you have.”
Ufot concurred, “Absolutely. I cannot underscore how strategic we have found this new generation of voters, black voters, voters of color period, and young voters, that there are things that Georgians want to win for themselves.”
Later, she repeated Ruhle and Reid’s claim, “Yes, there are tons of things that we want to win for ourselves, and our families, and things that we want to preserve, like bodily autonomy. And we understand that while voting isn't a silver bullet, it is an important tool that Georgians can use to build a Georgia and build a country that we feel like our families deserve. People know that, and they understand that. And they're showing up to vote in historic numbers, as a way to underscore that point.”
MSNBC has their narrative and they will stick to it, facts notwithstanding.
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MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
5/23/2022
11:23 PM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Early voting turnout out in Georgia’s primaries has already set records. Now, Republicans argue this proves that the election law they passed last year is not suppressing votes. Democrats have argued they’ve just had to work a lot harder. Who’s right?
NSE UFOT: I'd say that Leader Abrams is right, with the package that you just showed. That again, it is not about stopping voting. That it's about making it more difficult for certain types of Americans to participate in our democracy, to participate in our elections.
I will remind your viewers that President Trump, the disgraced former president of the United States, lost in the great state of Georgia by a margin of less than 12,000 votes, right? So, if Georgia is America's newest swing state, if it's America's newer battleground state, then these .0015% margins are, they absolutely matter. And inconveniencing a dozen voters, at a few dozen polling locations, could absolutely make, be the difference maker in some critical, key elections in our state. And I think that that is what their plans are, that that is what their ambition is, to inject as much confusion and frustration in the process as possible. To discourage people from participating, and to again, inject confusion, and to invalidate and cancel enough votes to continue to swing elections. And quite frankly, Georgians aren't having it.
RUHLE: Over the weekend, my colleague, Joy Reid, put, said something pretty interesting. Where she said, black voters vote sometimes in self-defense, to preserve their rights including voting history, access to health care. Tell me what you see in Georgia, because sometimes we hear the argument, people aren't getting enough, they're not going to vote because their voices aren't being heard. And Joy argued that sometimes you need to vote to preserve the rights you have.
UFOT: Absolutely. I cannot underscore how strategic we have found this new generation of voters, black voters, voters of color period, and young voters, that there are things that Georgians want to win for themselves. So, they are looking for champions, and people to send to Washington, D.C., and to send to this state capitol in order to do their work. The economy is absolutely on top so folks' minds, access to jobs, housing, we are still in the middle of a pandemic, right? Half of Georgia's counties don't have OB/GYN's, the minimum wage in the state is $5.15. And so, when we think about how we train our organizers, right?
That we have twice as many ears as you do mouths. So it is imperative that you listen to Georgians, and you understand what their priorities are. And then we commit the act of voting. So it's not a guy that you want to have a beer with, that people are voting for. It is who will co-govern with the people? Who will listen to Georgians? And I think the other thing is that Georgians actually recognize the power of their vote. Listen, we have Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, because of the 50 vote majority in the United States Senate, Georgia voters know that they did that, right? Eighty percent of American households got some sort of economic relief, through the American Rescue Plan, right? Georgia voters know that they did that, right? And so understanding the power of the vote, yes their president’s approval ratings are going down. Yes, the GOP has made up of a bunch of criminals who executed or fail to execute a murder plot against the vice president of the United States, right? Yes, there are tons of things that we want to win for ourselves, and our families, and things that we want to preserve, like bodily autonomy.
And we understand that while voting isn't a silver bullet, it is an important tool that Georgians can use to build a Georgia and build a country that we feel like our families deserve. People know that, and they understand that. And they're showing up to vote in historic numbers, as a way to underscore that point.
