| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
Alarming Efforts to Disenfranchise
00:07:22
|
||
|
unidentified
|
Ann Butler talks about her work and some of the methods she used to extract information from targets. | |
| I know also, because we have our ways of determining all kinds of information, that you're going to be on a particular flight at a particular time in a particular seat. | ||
| So I will either use other contacts that we have and I will get a seat coincidentally right next to you. | ||
| We're sitting together on the plane. | ||
| I start up a conversation with you, Peter. | ||
| Oh, we know your name. | ||
| Oh, I know a lot about you already. | ||
| But I'm not going to let that on. | ||
| I'm going to ask you where you're going, what you're doing. | ||
| I'm going to show all kinds of interest in you. | ||
| And I guarantee that you're going to tell me a lot about yourself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Author Ann Butler, Sunday night at 8 Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q ⁇ A and all of our podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts or on our free C-SPAN Now app. | |
| Members of the Congressional Black Caucus talked about redistricting efforts in several states during a press briefing on Capitol Hill, highlighting their concerns about African-American disenfranchisement and U.S. democracy. | ||
| The comments by members of the CBC run just over an hour. | ||
| Good afternoon. | ||
| Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us. | ||
| I'm Congresswoman Yvette D. Clark, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus for the 119th session of Congress and proud representative of New York's 9th Congressional District located in Brooklyn, New York. | ||
| I want to thank my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus for their leadership and presence here this afternoon. | ||
| I'd like to thank all the members of the press who are also present. | ||
| The CBC is gathered today to express a grave concern about the alarming and coordinated efforts to undermine black and minority representation through Republican-led redistricting. | ||
| As you know, the Republican Party, led by Donald Trump's congressional Republicans, and the GOP leaders in state legislatures across this country are systematically working to rig the upcoming election. | ||
| Their strategy is clear. | ||
| Dilute the voting power of black and brown communities to cling to power by any means necessary. | ||
| What we're seeing in states like Texas, Missouri, and others is nothing short of a direct assault on our representation in Congress. | ||
| If these racially gerrymandered maps are upheld in the courts, the Congressional Black Caucus could potentially lose critical seats, which would undermine decades of progress in securing fair representation for our communities. | ||
| Here's the truth. | ||
| Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are fully aware that their billionaire first agenda is deeply unpopular with the American people. | ||
| With inflation rising, tariffs straining the economy, and the consequences of the big, ugly bill becoming clear, Republicans are scrambling to cling to power. | ||
| So let me be clear. | ||
| We are not going back. | ||
| President Trump and his Republican allies are determined to drag this country back to a time when black voices were shut out of the democratic process, and we will not allow it. | ||
| Our communities fought long and hard for the right to choose our representatives. | ||
| This desperate attempt to rig elections and erode black political power will be met with fierce resistance. | ||
| We will also continue to address rampant efforts to disenfranchise our communities by other means. | ||
| We've seen Republican efforts to restrict voter registration, eliminate vote by mail, erect barriers to the ballot box for black and minority communities. | ||
| The CBC and House Democrats remain committed to protecting the sacred right to vote and defending free and fair elections at every level because the stakes are too high and the fight for our democracy is far from over. | ||
| Our democracy depends on fair representation, representation that reflects the diversity and the will of the American people. | ||
| The CBC will continue to stand on the front lines, advocating for policies and legislation that protect voting rights and ensure that every voice, especially those from historically marginalized communities, is heard loud and clear in Congress. | ||
| We call on our allies across the country to join us in this fight. | ||
| Together, we will challenge these unjust maps in the courts, push for stronger voting rights legislation, and hold accountable those who seek to undermine our democracy. | ||
| The future of our country depends on it, and we, we will not back down. | ||
| It is now my honor and privilege to ask Representative Al Green of Texas to come to the podium. | ||
| Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and I thank all of my colleagues for their endeavors to help us to bring some sense of justice to a system that is being perpetrated that is completely, totally, and absolutely grounded in racism. | ||
| Let me start with this. | ||
| In 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was passed, there were six African American members of Congress, five Latinos, and four Asians. | ||
| Currently, depending on how you count and who's counting, we have more than 60 African Americans. | ||
| We have more than 50 Latinos and more than 20 Asian Americans. | ||
|
Moments of Resistance
00:11:26
|
||
| I say depending on how you count and who's counting, because some persons can be defined in multiples. | ||
| But here's the truth. | ||
| If this plan succeeds in Texas, Texas will be just the genesis. | ||
| The revelations will be seen across the length and breadth of the country. | ||
| We are about to experience something that we never thought we'd see in our lifetimes, especially after having experienced what happened at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, which is probably the reason a good many of us are in Congress. | ||
| It was at the Edmund Pettis Bridge on Bloody Sunday that John Lewis and a host of other people of goodwill suffered grave, gross, and inhumane injustices. | ||
| These are persons who started out on a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery, and they were beaten all the way back to the church where they started. | ||
| John Lewis told me he thought he was going to die on that bridge. | ||
| Friends, Bloody Sunday is the reason we have the Voting Rights Act of 1965. | ||
| We would not, but for Bloody Sunday, have it maybe later on. | ||
| But Lyndon Johnson wouldn't have been able to sign it when he did. | ||
| It was Bloody Sunday. | ||
| Yes, it was signed in ink with a pen, but it was written in blood. | ||
| The blood of the people on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. | ||
| People who died just prior to the march, and some just after the march. | ||
| Some people think that it's comical to say that it's racist, it seems. | ||
| It is racist. | ||
| We have reached a point in our country where we can't say racism because you become persona non grata. | ||
| But you can say anti-Semitism. | ||
| And we say that. | ||
| I defend Jewish people. | ||
| I believe that we ought to eliminate anti-Semitism. | ||
| But we have come to a point where we want to manage racism and eliminate anti-Semitism. | ||
| We cannot allow that to take place. | ||
| Not on our watch. | ||
| We've had other people who brought us here. | ||
| We didn't get here by ourselves. | ||
| We ought not assume that we can allow language to become a barrier when you know if you're going to win this lawsuit, you've got to say racism. | ||
| If you don't say racism, we don't win. | ||
| Because Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is all about protecting racial minorities. | ||
| So we've got to tell the truth. | ||
| So here's the truth as I close and leave this microphone. | ||
| Here is the truth. | ||
| We got to have more fight in us. | ||
| We've got to be willing to take a stand and understand that John Lewis knew what he was marching into. | ||
| He saw the men on the horses. | ||
| He saw the clubs. | ||
| But they marched on. | ||
| They marched on. | ||
| The march is not over. | ||
| We have to march on. | ||
| I thank you. | ||
| We will now hear from Representative Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Just moments ago, the Missouri House passed a measure that is monumentally unpopular in the state of Missouri. | |
| We are polling data to show that Democrats are opposed to this, Independents are opposed to this, and Republicans are opposed to this. | ||
| Unfortunately and painfully, the state has fallen into a state where the will of the people of Missouri is being substituted for ideology in some instances. | ||
| And where we sit now, where we stand now, is that our state passed the woman's right to choose. | ||
| The state, Missouri's so-called bloody red Missouri, passed it, past the minimum wage. | ||
| Missouri legislature has worked overtime to repeal it. | ||
| So we have an out-of-control legislature in Missouri. | ||
| But I want to share this and yield to my colleague from Louisiana. | ||
| We are at a moment where there are powers trying to place this nation into the 1950s. | ||
| They're trying to reverse the direction of the country. | ||
| In my district, there are now three, there will be three members of Congress. | ||
| We had a street in Kansas City, Missouri called Truce. | ||
| It has historically been the Mason-Dixon line, separating the black community from the Caucasian community. | ||
| And people of goodwill, brown and black people have worked over the years to begin to erase it. | ||
| The school district moved this building there. | ||
| A major bank moved on truce. | ||
| A large headquarters of Head Start moved on Truce. | ||
| We're trying to erase those stigmas and this legislation begins to reestablish it. | ||
| And I don't know if people realize the damage and danger of what's going on. | ||
| We had an opportunity, and we still do, even though this is a dark moment, to set the standard for the rest of the world. | ||
| We are the best place in the world to try to create a multi-racial, a multicultural society where everybody's respected. | ||
| That's gone, at least for the moment. | ||
| And when our children and their children look back upon this moment, they're going to wonder, what were they thinking? | ||
| How could they have made so much progress only to have it reversed? | ||
| I think that this is one of the ugliest moments. | ||
| I grew up in the South. | ||
| This is one of the ugliest moments I've seen and felt in my lifetime. | ||
| And it seems that there are people who are just hell-bent on creating division, trying to divide every group, everybody from everybody. | ||
| And if it continues, Lord help us. | ||
| We'll now hear from Representative Andre Carson of Indiana. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Madam Chair. | |
| Thank you to the Congressional Black Caucus family. | ||
| I am well aware that I stand on the shoulders of giant heroes and sheroes. | ||
| No one is self-made. | ||
| I'm proud to represent the 7th congressional district in Indiana, which has the largest number of black and brown people in the state, 54% and counting. | ||
| Indianapolis' urban community grew by 33% in the last census. | ||
| The white population, 47.7%, And that dropped in the last census by 10%. | ||
| So here's some math. | ||
| Despite Donald Trump receiving just 58.6% of the vote, the Hoosier vote, Republicans currently hold 80% of congressional seats. | ||
| The numbers don't lie. | ||
| We have a strong and beautifully diverse community. | ||
| Our country is made up of many coalitions, black, white, Asian, Latino, liberal, conservative, young, old, gay, straight, theist, and non-theist. | ||
| That's what makes us who we are. | ||
| And to be who we are, every single vote must count. | ||
| You can't give Republicans and Donald Trump an advantage in Indiana without diluting the voice of black voters. | ||
| The strategy is very clear. | ||
| The racism is undeniable. | ||
| Target majority, minority districts, and then whitewash them. | ||
| It's unjust, it's unfair, and it's certainly unconstitutional. | ||
| It will not hold up and should not hold up to judicial scrutiny. | ||
| This isn't the first time black Americans have had to fight for the vote. | ||
| This isn't the first time black people have had to march for our rights. | ||
| It was just 60 years ago, as was previously mentioned, that the U.S. passed the Voting Rights Act. | ||
| The Sheroes and heroes of 60 years ago laid the groundwork for the Sheroes and heroes here today. | ||
| Freedom fighters march for change. | ||
| And today, it's our turn. | ||
| We march the pathway that they paid for us. | ||
| And make no mistake, we're fighting now. | ||
| And if extreme Republicans across the country vote to redistrict five years early, we will fight back in the courts. | ||
| We will fight back for fairness. | ||
| We will fight back for equality. | ||
| We will fight to save our country. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
Racist Plan Nationwide
00:12:11
|
||
| We will now hear from Mark Vesey of Texas. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| You know, it's a really sad day, I think, when the great state of Texas and the leadership in the great state of Texas vows to a corrupt and crooked president that is really just trying to do everything he can to accumulate as much power as he possibly can, including changing the rules in the middle of the game so he does not lose a Republican House majority here at the U.S. Capitol. | ||
| And by doing so, he is eroding the rights of minority voters all across the state of Texas, including in the district that I represent, the 33rd Congressional District. | ||
| And it's sad when you think about the great leaders, Republican and Democrat, that our state has had over the years. | ||
| And you look at subservient Greg Abbott, subservient Dan Patrick, who's our lieutenant governor, and this Speaker of the House that wants to make black and brown state legislators get permission slips to leave the House floor. | ||
| My state representative, Nicole Collier, who's my neighbor, they wouldn't even let her go home and change into clean clothes unless she agreed to sign a permission slip and be escorted by the police. | ||
| That is how bad and how racist it has gotten in the Texas state capitol in Austin. | ||
| And in addition to that, these maps that they drew that they passed out, they are a clear violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. | ||
| And I believe that they will not be upheld. | ||
| But the reason why we're here today is that this is now bigger than Texas. | ||
| This is not just a lone star state thing. | ||
| This is a nationwide thing. | ||
| And Donald Trump is trying to convince Republican state legislatures and governors all across this great land to do this mid-decade redistricting scheme. | ||
| And in the process, also eroding the rights of black and brown citizens in these various states. | ||
| And let's call it what it is. | ||
| You heard my colleague from Houston, Al Green, say that it's not cool to talk about racism anymore. | ||
| But this is a racist plan that they are doing nationwide. | ||
| Plain and simple. | ||
| It's nothing else. | ||
| It is racist. | ||
| It is going to disenfranchise and disempower black and brown voters everywhere. | ||
| Because Republicans know that this big, ugly bill is unpopular. | ||
| They know this president and his cronyism is unpopular. | ||
| And they know that they cannot win on the policies. | ||
| They don't want to talk about grocery prices that are going up. | ||
| They don't want to talk about rents are skyrocketing. | ||
| They don't want to talk about while they want to take people's insurance away while helping billionaires. | ||
| That's not what they want to talk about. | ||
| And so they're trying to enact these redistricting plans. | ||
| They're trying to rig these maps, plain and simple. | ||
| And that's not what America is about. | ||
| There's a reason why, if you go back to the beginning and the founding of our republic, nobody was doing mid-decade redistricting in the late 1700s. | ||
| Nobody was doing it in the 1800s. | ||
| Nobody was doing it in the early 1900s. | ||
| Tom DeLay did it first, and now Trump is doing it. | ||
| You're going to tell me that Tom DeLay and Trump know better than the people that wrote this document that we live by in this body? | ||
| No, it's not even realistic. | ||
| And so we are going to fight this. | ||
| We are not going to back down. | ||
| And I believe that the Voting Rights Act will be upheld and that these maps in Texas will be overturned. | ||
| But again, Texas is just the beginning. | ||
| This is a nationwide fight. | ||
| And it's bigger than who holds the majority in the House of Representatives. | ||
| This is about maintaining our democracy in our republic. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| We will now hear from Representative Troy Carter of Louisiana. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for gathering us here today for this very important discussion. | ||
| Thank you all for covering it. | ||
| Let me be abundantly clear. | ||
| The maps as they are currently situated in Louisiana are as they should be. | ||
| One-third of Louisiana's population is African-American. | ||
| We have six members in our delegation, one-third, two of six. | ||
| This map that we currently have that created our second African-American congressional district was passed, deliberated in both houses of our state legislature, both of which are majority-led by Republicans. | ||
| It was passed and then signed by our Republican governor. | ||
| It was defended by our Republican Attorney General. | ||
| It is as it should be. | ||
| Yet, now that President Trump recognizes that he doesn't have the votes to defend his big, ugly law. | ||
| He doesn't have the votes to defend his big, ugly law. | ||
| So the attempt to deal from the bottom of the deck, to change the rules midstream, to now go back and ask our colleagues in the legislature to do what they don't want to do, to undo what they did, to go back into session and to redraw lines to eliminate the work that they did. | ||
| I underscore this second seat was deliberated, voted on, passed, and defended by Republicans. | ||
| Our colleagues, my former colleagues in the legislature, toiled over this and did an incredible job to do the right thing. | ||
| And now they're being asked to undo it. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Not because something's wrong with it, but because the president said in his words, not mine, I need to control the House. | ||
| I need five more votes out of Texas. | ||
| I need another vote everywhere I can get it to make sure that I control the Congress. | ||
| Why? | ||
| To advance his policies, to advance Project 2025. | ||
| Never mind what's right. | ||
| Never mind that our census is done every 10 years and then we take into account the ebbs and flows of population shifts. | ||
| This president wants to do it ahead of time. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Again? | ||
| Because he cannot defend the actions of this big, ugly law. | ||
| America, we have to be smarter than that. | ||
| Republican, Democrat, or otherwise, we have to be smarter than that and stand against anyone who attempts to tear down our democracy, to tear down our rule of law, to change the rules midstream. | ||
| What are we telling America when we say, when you lose, it's okay to change the rules. | ||
| When you lose, it's okay to defy the odds. | ||
| It's okay to do what you know is wrong as long as it advances your cause. | ||
| What does it say to our young students out there who are studying government, who are contemplating being a part of this process? | ||
| What are we saying to the rest of the world when this most powerful nation deals from the bottom of the deck against its own people? | ||
| This caucus, our caucus, and all of you we invite to stand for what's right, to stand against this injustice, do the right thing, and rest assured, we will not run, we will not hide, we will fight, and we'll fight with every tool that we have all the way to the ballot box to make sure that our Constitution, peaceful transfers of power, and that the very tenets of who we are is maintained. | ||
| We are a democracy, not a dictatorship. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| We will now hear from Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas. | ||
| Thank you so much, Madam Chair. | ||
| And I have to make sure I don't get in trouble back home in Texas. | ||
| So let me be really clear. | ||
| These maps, racist. | ||
| The fact that they are trying to silence black and minority voters in a majority, minority state, racist. | ||
| Pulling all of the economic engines out of certain districts, also racist. | ||
| The bottom line is this is a Republican-led and racist attempt to make sure that we silence the voices of black and brown people. | ||
| Now, I want to give y'all some numbers because I don't think that y'all fully understand how bad this is. | ||
| Texas, number one, has more African Americans than any other state in this country. | ||
| Right now, under the proposed maps, they want to make it to where Texas only has two districts in which African Americans have an opportunity to choose their representation. | ||
| What does that mean for black voices in Texas? | ||
| That means that it is approximately one-fifth the voting strength of their white Texan neighbors. | ||
| That is what it's going to be, not three-fifths, but we are going to be reduced to one-fifth. | ||
| So, my colleagues have laid out a number of things that they believe is going on as to why it is that this is happening, but I'm going to start with number one, Trump himself. | ||
| He's racist. | ||
| I've been saying that. | ||
| I said that during the campaign. | ||
| Anybody that would adopt the objectives of Project 2025 truly believes in a racist ideology. | ||
| But also, he has been very clear about retribution. | ||
| Retribution because black people had the audacity to have some sense and didn't want to go back to a time where black unemployment was at a historic high, like it is right now. | ||
| Retribution, because black people didn't want even less access to health care in a country that continues to have an abysmal maternal mortality rate as it relates to black women. | ||
| Retribution, because black people didn't want to endure a supercharged police state like we are seeing with the invasion of black-run cities. | ||
| Retribution, because black women somehow became the most educated demographic in this country. | ||
| They are trying to drown our voices out, but we will not be silenced. | ||
| They've tried to bury us before, not knowing that we were seeds. | ||
| We will grow and we will be resilient, just as we have time and time before. | ||
| The final note that I'll mark for you is: I know what we can do when we just come together as a country. | ||
| Because as it's been stated over and over, 60 years ago, we ended up with the Voting Rights Act. | ||
| And you know who signed that into law? | ||
| A good Texan, LBJ. | ||
| Texas can do better. | ||
| Texas historically has done better. | ||
| And so while we are fighting this in the courts, please believe, just know that the fight that the people are going to put up in the state of Texas is going to be a big fight no matter what happens, and we will win. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We will now hear from Representative Amelia Sykes of Ohio. | ||
|
Ohio's 13th Redistricting Battle
00:15:31
|
||
| Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all of you and all my esteemed colleagues for being here to talk about this very important district. | ||
| My name is Amelia Sykes, and I represent Ohio's 13th congressional district, located in Northeast Ohio. | ||
| And after decades of splitting my community into four or more separate congressional districts for the benefit of partisan gerrymandering, the current configuration of Ohio's 13th district keeps the state's fourth largest county whole, brings together the fifth and eighth largest cities in the state. | ||
| It includes townships, cities, villages, rural agricultural, and suburban areas. | ||
| That is the most evenly divided congressional district based on the 2024 congressional vote in the entire country, where just over 100 votes separated Vice President Harris and President Trump. | ||
| I'll say that again. | ||
| Ohio's 13th congressional district is the most evenly divided in the country by the 2024 presidential vote, and it is one of the most competitive in the country. | ||
| It is exactly what you think of when you're looking for a competitive congressional district that could swing from one party to another. | ||
| And it's the kind of district that voters in Ohio demanded after a 2018 anti-gerrymandering ballot initiative was supported by nearly 75% of the citizens of the state of Ohio, gaining a majority vote in all 88 counties of the state. | ||
| The citizens of Ohio wanted to enshrine fair districts into our state's constitution. | ||
| Ohioans who were fed up with partisan gerrymandering made their voices heard at the ballot box and in an attempt to discourage gerrymandering in the process, the state constitution required, unlike my other colleagues, a mid-decade redraw if the maps were not passed in a bipartisan manner. | ||
| So nonetheless, even though voters demanded reform and bipartisanship, Ohio Republicans refused and ignored the people of the great state of Ohio and in 2021, congressional maps were passed by partisan lines, on partisan lines. | ||
| Even more enraging, the Republican majority, Ohio State Supreme Court ruled all of the state legislative maps unconstitutional, not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, not five times, not six times, seven times. | ||
| That's right, the Ohio Republican Supreme Court ruled the state's maps unconstitutional seven times, yet Ohio Republicans ran off the clock and refused to redraw the maps. | ||
| So today, Ohioans are currently living under unconstitutional maps. | ||
| Now, like many of my colleagues you've heard from, we're preparing for a political process that is going to be ripe with political warfare and gamesmanship. | ||
| But where Ohio's 13th district is a little bit different than my colleagues, this is a district with a 90% white electorate. | ||
| So this fall, the Ohio General Assembly and the Redistricting Commission will have to redraw Ohio's already unconstitutional congressional maps because of undue partisan gerrymandering, seemingly kicking off this whole redistricting battle. | ||
| We do say we are the heart of all in Ohio, but we did not want to be a part of this. | ||
| Unsurprisingly, but still disappointing, Ohio Republicans from our United States Senator to state House leaders have said that they intend to gerrymander the state even more. | ||
| They're looking for any opportunity for Republican politicians to choose their voters instead of allowing voters to choose who they would like to represent them. | ||
| Gerrymandering was supposed to be a relic of the past in Ohio when voters adopted the Constitutional Amendment to end partisan gerrymandering. | ||
| But sadly, the citizen-led effort to improve our government has been co-opted by extremists to make gerrymandering even worse. | ||
| And as Republicans double down, they are making their intentions known that they do not care about the Constitution and they do not care about the people of Ohio. | ||
| As speculation swirls about what the final maps will look like in Ohio and how they may impact current incumbents, I want to make it very clear that this fight is not about me. | ||
| This fight is about the people of the state of Ohio having their voices heard and getting the representation that they vote for and for the representation that they deserve. | ||
| I'm focused on advocating for my constituents, but if you've heard the news, Republicans are focused on me. | ||
| They've called me out by name, they've targeted this district, and they do not want to see me representing Ohio's 13th district. | ||
| But most importantly, what they are saying is that they don't want Ohio's 13th congressional district represented by someone who listens to them, who values them, who shows up for them, and who fights for them. | ||
| And the voters of Ohio's 13th congressional district elected me in spite of all of the odds to fight for lower costs, put more money in their pockets, and to keep our children and families safe. | ||
| When I was elected to Congress, I said that it may be my name on the ballot, but when I win, I'm taking all of our voices to Washington. | ||
| And I will continue that work. | ||
| And I'm doing that work today, connecting my community to the federal government and ensuring that government works for everyone, not just the privileged few. | ||
| I want to leave you with something that Akron's native son, LeBron James, summed up about the ethos of our community in this following quote. | ||
| He said that in Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. | ||
| Everything is earned. | ||
| Republicans are attempting to steal congressional districts and one in the northeast of Ohio without earning the vote of the people. | ||
| Republicans are attempting to get an unearned majority in the United States House of Representatives. | ||
| Now, in my neck of the woods, we call this cheating. | ||
| And that's what they're doing. | ||
| Cheating. | ||
| They are cheaters. | ||
| They cannot win. | ||
| They cannot win on their merits. | ||
| They cannot win with this one big, ugly bill. | ||
| They cannot win with the way in which they are increasing costs. | ||
| They cannot win with the way that they are running this government. | ||
| And so they are going to cheat. | ||
| And we are a big sports community. | ||
| We have Football Hall of Fame, we have LeBron James and Steph Curry. | ||
| We know how to be athletic, we know how to compete, and we know how to win, but we do not accept cheating. | ||
| When our congressional district was cut up into several congressional districts, we lacked a cohesive voice to advocate for our needs, to make ourselves make someone available to the public. | ||
| And we did not have the connection to resources that we needed. | ||
| And as this redistricting process plays out, my hope is that legislators and both parties in the state of Ohio work together to put forward a map that allows voters to choose their elected officials and not the other way around. | ||
| But most importantly, this is about fairness, this is about liberty, and this is about justice. | ||
| And it is important for every single person who is engaged in this fight to remember why it is important. | ||
| This is about ensuring that everything is earned and not given, especially a U.S. House of Representatives majority to an unpopular Republican extremist. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| We will now hear from Representative Cleo Fields of Louisiana. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| Today I stand with the Congressional Black Caucus to reaffirm our strong commitment to protecting voting rights and ensuring fair representation to all Americans, especially for black and minority communities who have been historically discriminated against. | ||
| We are already seeing it play out in real time in Texas, and it won't stop there. | ||
| Conservative legislators across the deep South, including South Carolina, Mississippi, and my home state, Louisiana, are currently plotting to eliminate majority-minority congressional districts entirely. | ||
| Let me be absolutely clear. | ||
| Republican-led gerrymandering has clipped away at black and minority representation in Louisiana and across the country, diluting the political powers of communities that fought so hard for their voices to be heard. | ||
| The results in this push would be a Congress that fails to reflect the diversity of our nation and a nationwide roadback of hard-fought civil rights protections that took generations of sacrifice to secure. | ||
| This issue is a little personal to me. | ||
| As many of you know, Louisiana's recent decision to reverse its defense of a fair redistricting map under the Voting Rights Act is deeply troubling. | ||
| It echoes the dark and painful legacy of Plessy versus Ferguson, a decision from over one century ago that put racial segregation and discrimination in law in Louisiana and in this nation. | ||
| Turning our backs on the Voting Rights Act now sends a dangerous signal that we are willing to relive the very injustices that Homer Plessy fought for and fought against. | ||
| We cannot and must not allow this to happen. | ||
| We must reject any attempt to erase the political power of black and minority voters. | ||
| We must instead move forward with redistricting plans that honor the promise and fair representation and true democracy. | ||
| My colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus will continue to fight tirelessly to protect subsection two of the Voting Rights Act and ensure that every American, regardless of their race or background, has a fair and equal opportunity to participate in our democracy. | ||
| Our work is far from over, and together we will stand strong and resist any effort to undermine the fundamental right to vote. | ||
| Because when every voice counts, our democracy is stronger, is fair, and is more just. | ||
| I now like to inter. | ||
| Well, we change the roles. | ||
| Bring the chairman back up. | ||
| Madam Chair. | ||
| Thank you very much, Representative Fields. | ||
| To close out our press conference, we're going to have Representative Terry Sewell of Alabama. | ||
| Good afternoon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good afternoon. | |
| I'm Congresswoman Terry Sewell. | ||
| I proudly represent Alabama's 7th Congressional District, which includes the historic cities of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and my hometown of Selma, Alabama. | ||
| I want to thank our illustrious chairwoman, Yvette Clark. | ||
| Voting rights is a top priority for the Congressional Black Caucus, and I am grateful for her leadership on this issue and many others. | ||
| We, the Congressional Black Caucus, stand firm. | ||
| I want to be very clear. | ||
| We know what's going on. | ||
| After ripping health care away from 17 million people, Donald Trump and his Republican enablers are watching their poll numbers plummet. | ||
| The American people are seeing the consequences of Trump's reckless agenda. | ||
| And while billionaires get handouts and special favors, the American people are being crushed by high cost of living. | ||
| Americans are feeling the effects of Trump's tariffs on everything from groceries to school supplies. | ||
| Meanwhile, Americans are seeing the worst job numbers since the pandemic as our economy teeters on the edge of a recession. | ||
| Trump and Republicans know that they cannot win fair, and so guess what? | ||
| They are trying to rig the next election to stay in power. | ||
| And how are they doing it? | ||
| By diluting the vote of black and brown and minority voters all across this nation. | ||
| Rather than answering to the voters, Trump is resorting to the oldest trick in the book, silencing the voice of those who disagree. | ||
| These are the actions of wannabe tyrant, and we know he is not a king. | ||
| As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Voting Rights Brain Trust, this fight is very personal to me. | ||
| I am a proud daughter of Selma, Alabama, and the representative of Alabama's Civil Rights District. | ||
| It was in my hometown of Selma, Alabama that John Lewis and those brave foot soldiers were bludgeoned on a bridge for the equal right of all Americans to vote. | ||
| We will not stand by while the Republicans and Donald Trump try to steal this election. | ||
| We're going to stand up, we're going to speak up, and we're going to call it out for the scheme that it is, voter suppression, plain and simple. | ||
| We in Alabama are no stranger to this fight. | ||
| Just two years ago, the Supreme Court found in the Milligan case that the state of Alabama violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by drawing a congressional map that intentionally diluted the power of the black voters. | ||
| Now, the Republican redistricting scheme happening in Texas and other states is even worse. | ||
| It is voter suppression on steroids. | ||
| We in the Congressional Black Caucus are united against the power grab that Donald Trump and the Republicans are trying to have. | ||
| We will do whatever it takes to ensure that black and minority voters and all Americans are fairly represented in the halls of Congress. | ||
| We know that we will continue to legislate, litigate, and mobilize our districts. | ||
| I am reminded that we must be in good trouble. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's right. | |
| Good trouble. | ||
| And as I take my seat, I want you to know that John Lewis said it best. | ||
| On his very last visit to the Edmund Pettis Bridge, when his body was riddled with cancer, John stood strong and his voice was quite deliberate. | ||
| And our colleagues said, never give up. | ||
| Never give in. | ||
| Keep the faith and keep our eyes on the prize. | ||
| Well, John, as you look down from heaven, we in the Congressional Black Caucus, we're keeping our eyes firmly on the prize. | ||
|
Why We Must Engage in Agitation
00:15:16
|
||
| And that prize is a democracy that recognizes that fair representation is good for everyone. | ||
| Let us all keep our eyes on the prize and get into some good trouble. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| I want to thank our colleagues. | ||
| As you can see, the Congressional Black Caucus is extremely diverse. | ||
| Oftentimes, we're seen as a monolith. | ||
| We come from every community across this nation. | ||
| But the targeting that is taking place right now in these deep red states is abhorrent. | ||
| And I think it's important that we educate the public about what this truly is. | ||
| Some of my colleagues call it cheating. | ||
| I call it disenfranchisement. | ||
| At the end of the day, our basic precip of democracy is the right to vote. | ||
| And when you are able to use your partisan powers to encourage people to our legislative bodies to basically break down what has been a constitutional compact for redistricting in order to target very specific communities across this nation, you are disenfranchising the voters which, at the end of the day, is the the the, | ||
| the essence of what our democracy is all about. | ||
| So, having said that, i'm going to uh open up to see whether there are any questions. | ||
| Wow, a lot of questions. | ||
| All right uh, i'm gonna go uh from from, from your right to my left, all the way across and back. | ||
| We're gonna start over here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks uh, Lauren Burr from Blackcroft, Usa. | |
| Uh, for the Texans, mr Weasi and mr Green, uh, you know, when everything happened in Texas, there didn't seem to be a plan because it sort of caught everybody off guard. | ||
| Can you articulate, moving forward now this has gone federal state, federal whether or not there's a plan for this? | ||
| I mean that you're saying that you're hearing in the party. | ||
| Uh, because it is a very specific attack on CBC members. | ||
| Are you hearing any plan? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are you feeling like there's a plan? | |
| Can you comment on that? | ||
| Yes, there is a plan and I thank you for the question, but let me thank my colleagues for what they've said, because all of them spoke well and I salute them and appreciate them. | ||
| Yes, there is a plan. | ||
| Since I have been in Congress, most of the time I have been in litigation against the state of Texas tens of thousands of dollars. | ||
| I have a lawyer, I have my demographer. | ||
| We are in the lawsuit that is currently pending, and now that lawsuit is moving into another phase as it relates to this new redistricting gerrymandering that is taking place. | ||
| So yes, we are litigating, but litigation is not enough. | ||
| We really have to engage in some agitation. | ||
| People have to know that we are upset, that we are angry now that doesn't mean that you have to destroy anything. | ||
| You don't have to commit any crimes, but we have to engage in peaceful protest. | ||
| The country has to see that this is unacceptable to the extent that we are willing to do what was done to get us here in the first place. | ||
| We didn't get to Congress because of our brilliance. | ||
| We're here because people were sacrificed. | ||
| Someone had to find out what a 90 pound German shepherd bites like, what a high pressure water hose things like, what going to jail feels like and losing a loved one to a cause hurts like. | ||
| So we've got to use litigation, but we also have to use protestation. | ||
| Yeah no, absolutely uh. | ||
| Your question on the plan, I think is a, is a really key one. | ||
| Uh, as representative Green just pointed out, you know we're in the middle of litigation and i've said in my comments that I feel very confident that uh that that we're on solid ground. | ||
| When it comes uh to the violations that have happened in these Texas maps, I think that it's no question that they're racist and that they clearly violated the voting rights act. | ||
| I have no doubt That people have been asking questions that I've talked to back at home about, hey, if we want to support the cause in California, what do we do? | ||
| And so I do think that at some point the DMC will need to put together some sort of a group or some sort of a plan to be able to address like all of these different questions that are happening. | ||
| Because, you know, like we were saying a few weeks ago, it wasn't just stopping in Texas. | ||
| Now it's going to Missouri. | ||
| You know, they're talking about going to Indiana. | ||
| They're talking about going to Florida next. | ||
| And so there needs to be some sort of group or entity put together because people are going to have a lot of questions. | ||
| People are going to want to know how they can help. | ||
| And we need to be prepared because as crazy as they are and as racist as the Republicans are, they're prepared to erode the rights of black and brown citizens all throughout this great land. | ||
| And we need to be ready to fight back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks. | |
| Yes. | ||
| My question is for Congressman Cleaver. | ||
| I know there is a plan to fight the maps, but if the map as it is is adopted, do you plan to run? | ||
| Do you plan to fight or what is your contingency plan? | ||
| I'm running right now. | ||
| At this moment, at this very moment. | ||
| The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has already filed suit. | ||
| I mean, the legislature has been dead. | ||
| It's fresh. | ||
| It hasn't been an hour since they took step one in disenfranchising the people of Missouri. | ||
| We're going to probably end up with two or three other lawsuits, but there will probably be an initiative petition because Missouri tries to discuss initiative petitions to just make sure that everybody's just hush up and sit down. | ||
| So we're going to do that and everything else that we can do to make sure that the people are not hurt further. | ||
| What happened in my particular district is that they looked at the 5th district and they said, we don't like the way the people in the 5th district vote. | ||
| So we're going to put some other people in the 5th district who vote the way we would like and move some of the people to the 5th district in another district. | ||
| It's called the Great Movement of People Plan. | ||
| And so we have nothing to do but continue to challenge it and challenge it. | ||
| Because as I mentioned earlier, the polling data says this is one of the most unpopular things that has happened in our state. | ||
| But, you know, people said they're afraid, I think, to do anything against the order they received. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| I'm going to start there and work my way back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Madam Chair. | |
| Thank you all for your comments. | ||
| A lot of you mentioned Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and your responses to how you all are going to fight this and the cause that you think will support you in a lot of this litigation. | ||
| But the Supreme Court will hear a case next month on the Louisiana, the Louisiana map that Mr. Phils and Mr. Carter referred to, and they could weaken Section 2. | ||
| The Supreme Court expedited this case ahead of the 2026 election so it could have some impact on the midterms. | ||
| As you all think about taking these cases to the court and referring to Section 2 in your arguments, are you prepared for a weakened Voting Rights Act? | ||
| And what does voting rights look like with a weakened or eliminated Section 2? | ||
| I'm going to have Royal Clue. | ||
| Well, listen, we are prepared for everything because we know that the Louisiana case is a test case. | ||
| We know that the attack of the Voting Rights Act is real. | ||
| And that changes the dynamic of everything. | ||
| What happens in this case will change the dynamic of the rest of our discussions. | ||
| What does America look like with a weakened Voting Rights Act? | ||
| It doesn't look like America at all. | ||
| Plain and simple. | ||
| What it looks like is an illegal attack on the rights of American citizens to cast the vote for people they choose. | ||
| It looks like an attempt to roll back the time, to take away the hard-fought rights that were gained at the Pettus Bridge that were gained by the freedom fighters who marched. | ||
| Good people, black, white, working together to demonstrate that people's rights should be recognized. | ||
| An attack on the Voting Rights Act will be the demise of that. | ||
| And America's watching, we're watching, and we're not going to sit back and let it happen without a fight, without bringing every legal tool to bear to defend our Constitution. | ||
| Just very briefly to that, listen, you know, after slavery and after the passage of the 13, 14, and 15th Amendment, you know, blacks in Louisiana had the right to vote. | ||
| But there were state laws that prohibit them. | ||
| They had state laws where when a person went to register to vote, they had to state how many bubbles were in a bar soak. | ||
| You know, state the preamble to the Constitution, the poll tax. | ||
| You know, the Voting Rights Act was designed for states like Louisiana. | ||
| And I'm just optimistic. | ||
| I just don't think that the Supreme Court is going to water down or rule aside the Voting Rights Act. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Where does their optimism come from, given the weakening of Section 5? | |
| Like, where does your optimism come from for folks out there who don't have that hope or optimism that you're expressing? | ||
| Well, I have it. | ||
| I have it, and I have it for good reasons. | ||
| I mean, listen, people in Louisiana and people in the southern part of the country has just as much of a right to participate in this democracy as anybody else. | ||
| And without the Voting Rights Act, they will not have that opportunity. | ||
| You know, Louisiana's minority population is over 33%. | ||
| You know, there are six members of Congress from the state. | ||
| You know, is the Supreme Court going to say that a black person doesn't have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice? | ||
| I don't think so. | ||
| You know, the legislature is meeting right when the Supreme Court hears a case. | ||
| I think that's putting the court before the horse. | ||
| But I'm just, I'm optimistic. | ||
| I'm optimistic that the Supreme Court will see through it all. | ||
| We have very good lawyers. | ||
| The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, I think, all due to the Attorney General backed away from the case. | ||
| But I'm optimistic because I have to be optimistic. | ||
| Otherwise, we have another post-Reconstruction period. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I think that we were headed for this side. | ||
| Yes, sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Brittany Shepherd, ABC News. | |
| And this is probably a question for you, but it's broad. | ||
| So what is the CBC doing directly to support at-risk members like Rip Cleaver? | ||
| We've been in touch with outside voices like Kamala Harris. | ||
| I've seen she's been calling a couple local delegations to talk about this. | ||
| So, what's the plan and who have you been talking to? | ||
| Yeah, you know, everyone across the civil rights, national civil rights organizations are mobilizing. | ||
| We know that we cannot just simply rely on what will happen in the courts. | ||
| We know that we have to continue to do voter registration and voter education. | ||
| That's why it was so critical for us to get this out into the press today so that the public can be aware of exactly what it looks like to have these many members under threat of losing their seats due to mid-decade redistricting and what the impact is in terms of disenfranchisement. | ||
| So, we're going to be working with each and every colleague to do whatever they seem fit. | ||
| Each location is different, as was exemplified by Congresswoman Sykes of Ohio, very diverse. | ||
| And we want to be able to use best practices in every aspect of this. | ||
| With the Louisiana case coming, we know that this is all about litigation. | ||
| And so, you know, we're prepared to be as nimble as we need to be as members, as supporters, as colleagues, to do what we must do to make sure that we're victorious in this fight. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Today's highlighting, obviously, the red state black Democrats who are in danger of being redistricted. | ||
| Safe to say, a large number of white Republicans in these states are favoring these measures. | ||
| Can you spell out why this precedent should worry those people that are so far supporting these measures, why this precedent should worry them? | ||
| I'll tell you why. | ||
| Because us today, you tomorrow. | ||
| You got to realize when you change the rules midstream, that means the next person gets to change the rules midstream. | ||
| There's a reason we have rules. | ||
| There's a reason the rules are spelled out. | ||
| There's a reason they're clear. | ||
| So for people who think they're going to get advantage on this rule change, just wait. | ||
| Because when you set a precedent that the rules don't matter, that whoever has the mantra gets to make the rules upon their whim, it can hurt you too. | ||
| Us today, you tomorrow, you the next day. | ||
| We have to continue to be the America that plays by the rules. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| All right. | ||
| I'm going to. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Actually, a quick follow-up on your response. | |
| On the rules? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, because Republicans are saying that they're simply responding to how the census was handled during the Biden administration. | |
| And they're saying that, look, there are blue states out there where there's perhaps 40% registered Republicans and there are zero representation for Republicans here in the Congress in that you're claiming for something hypocritical as a result of that. | ||
|
Look At The Data
00:07:01
|
||
|
unidentified
|
What's your response to that? | |
| Hogwash. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Exactly. | |
| Hogwash. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hogwash. | |
| That's my answer to that is: give me a break. | ||
| Look at the data, not the rhetoric. | ||
| Look at the data. | ||
| It doesn't support that claim. | ||
| And it's one thing to now pivot from reality because Donald Trump asked you to. | ||
| And it's another thing to look at the census, look at the numbers, look at the maps as they are. | ||
| You didn't hear any of these arguments until roughly five weeks ago when Donald Trump said, I need to get five more votes out of Texas. | ||
| These manufactured arguments were non-existent. | ||
| So my answer, hogwash. | ||
| And let me say this too, Troy. | ||
| I was going to say, I've heard the Republicans say that on Fox and through their social media people, but you're talking apples and oranges. | ||
| You can go and look at all 50 states when they did redistricting in 2021, after the 2020 census came out, and you can critique what the geography and what the map drawing looks like. | ||
| But we are talking about mid-decade redistricting. | ||
| And that's why people don't like this place sometimes, is because people try to confuse people. | ||
| And we're not talking, Republicans, Democrats have never, ever done mid-decade. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no, no. | |
| No, no, no, no. | ||
| Democrats have never done mid-decade redistricting. | ||
| And you're trying to conflate mid-decade redistricting with the redistricting that's done at the beginning of the decade, and we're not going to let that happen. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Did you want to say that? | ||
| I just wanted to say that the Voting Rights Act, Section 2, doesn't protect black voters. | ||
| It protects minority voters. | ||
| The Browning of America is real. | ||
| And as my brother from Louisiana said, as we get browner, the flow of who is in the minority will be different. | ||
| So it's us today, but it may be you tomorrow. | ||
| And here's what I know for a fact. | ||
| Those 40% Republicans are not, their vote has not been diluted because in Alabama, where there are seven, and there are two of us that are Democrats, and there are five that are Republican, they got five people representing them. | ||
| The reality is when we are underrepresented, we have no voice. | ||
| When we are underrepresented, we have no voice. | ||
| There's a distinct difference in that. | ||
| And I also just want to add that the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, while now it is replacing Section 5 by giving a modern day formula to determine which states have had a history of voter discrimination, that same piece of legislation can equally deal with voter dilution. | ||
| The genesis of this is Texas. | ||
| I have the letter that the Attorney General of the United States sent to the state of Texas, and the last sentence in the letter reads, if the state of Texas fails to rectify the racial gerrymandering of Texas 9, that's the district that I currently represent, Texas 18 was represented by Sylvester Turner, who has made his transition. | ||
| Texas 29, Sylvia Garcia, and Texas 33, which is Mark Feasy. | ||
| The Attorney General reserves a right to seek legal action against the state, including without limitation under the 14th Amendment. | ||
| Now, the lines were drawn by Republicans in Texas. | ||
| The president, by and through his agents in the Justice Department, are indicating that those lines were drawn with racial intentionality to put black people in office. | ||
| Well, the Attorney General for the state of Texas, I have his letter here. | ||
| I'll give him both to you. | ||
| Attorney General of the State of Texas say, oh, no, that's wrong. | ||
| We don't draw lines like that in Texas. | ||
| He goes so far to darken the only language that's darkened in his letter reads, the Texas legislature did not pass race-based electoral districts for any of these districts, okay? | ||
| So the Justice Department introduced the race card by indicating that we people of color had lies drawn to benefit us when the state of Texas says it didn't do that. | ||
| And for further education, the state of Texas has been sued in every decade since the Voting Rights Act has been implemented. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's right. | |
| It was the state of Texas that had all white primaries. | ||
| Only white people could vote in the primaries. | ||
| And it went all the way to the Supreme Court. | ||
| A dentist out of Houston, Texas, Lonnie Smith, took the case to the Supreme Court. | ||
| And the Supreme Court said, Texas, you can't do that. | ||
| You can't have an all-white primary. | ||
| Texas said, okay, we'll have all-white pre-primaries. | ||
| It's literally what happened. | ||
| So Texas is being challenged because of the racial gerrymandering. | ||
| It is racism. | ||
| This is why we are here saying to you, it looks like people of color are being targeted. | ||
| Now show me where that's happening in these other states as it relates to other people. | ||
| These are people of color. | ||
| This is racist. | ||
| That's why it's different. | ||
| It's racist. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you all very much. | ||
| You've spent a lot of time with us today. | ||
| I hope you'll get this message out to the public. | ||
| And we thank you for your time today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, thank you. | |
| You were great. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I appreciate it. | |
| They violated the Constitution. | ||
|
Leaders Debate Democracy
00:01:33
|
||
|
unidentified
|
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom started a new podcast in March. | |
| His first guest was conservative activist Charlie Kirk. | ||
| The two political leaders debated their differences, but also sought out common ground in areas of agreement. | ||
| We'll show you that conversation in its entirety Sunday night at 9.40 Eastern here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Next Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference to discuss the U.S. economy after a board of governors meeting where officials will decide whether to cut interest rates. | ||
| We'll have that live at 2.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| Coming up on C-SPAN, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett talks about her approach to the Constitution. | ||
| Then, ceremonies at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, marking the 24th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. | ||