McConnell’s Message To Minorities On Selma Anniversary: Your Vote Won’t Count

When asked about the Voting Rights Act on Face The Nation, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s message to minority voters was that he has no interest in making sure that their votes will count.

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Transcript via Face The Nation:

SCHIEFFER: Yesterday, down in Selma, the president made an impassioned plea to Congress to restore Voting Rights Act. Will you support that?

MCCONNELL: Well, the Voting Rights Act is still intact. It prevents discrimination in the voting behavior all across America based on race.

The Supreme Court took out a portion of it. We are taking a look at that. Certainly, this is an important, important occasion. Bob, just interestingly enough, I was a young man in 1965 visiting one of my senators from Kentucky, and he took me over to the Rotunda, and I actually saw Lyndon Johnson sign the Voting Rights Act.

And that was, of course, four or five months after Bloody Sunday. It has been an extraordinarily important piece of legislation. It prevents discrimination in voting on the basis of race all over America. And we all revere the changes that have been brought in our country as a result of this important legislation.

That was a big no on restoring The Voting Rights Act from Sen. McConnell. Mitch McConnell has repeatedly dodged any questions about the Voting Rights Act. His answer on Face The Nation was to claim that the law is still intact. The problem is that the Voting Rights Act is not intact. It was gutted by the Supreme Court. The shell of what remains is called the Voting Rights Act, but it a law with no teeth.

McConnell tried to dodge the question after the Supreme Court decision, but he gave away his position when he said, “Well, I haven’t read [the decision] yet. Obviously, it is an important bill that passed back in the sixties, at a time when we had a very different America than we have today. […] I think I’m just going to have to read it first, but I would say that I do think America is very different from what it was in the 1960s.”

In Mitch McConnell’s America, billionaires like the Koch brothers get unlimited power while minorities and others have to fight to have their votes counted. The message in McConnell’s statements on Face The Nation was that voting rights aren’t a priority, and unless you are a rich Koch brother, Sen. McConnell doesn’t care about your role in the democratic process.