Ted Cruz BECLOWNED Over 'Racist' Voter ID Laws at Hearing
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 4 commentsBy: Tommy Christopher (Mediaite)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Tommy ChristopherSep 22nd, 2021, 2:26 pm Twitter share button <?php // Post Body ?>
Texas Senator Ted Cruz's attempt at a verbal trap blew up in his face when three witnesses gave matter-of-fact responses to his question "Are voter I.D. laws racist?"
Cruz posed the question Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Restoring the Voting Rights Act: Combating Discriminatory Abuses," to a trio of Democratic witnesses: Franita Tolson, Vice Dean For Faculty and Academic Affairs And Professor Of Law University of Southern California Gould School of Law; John Yang, President and Executive Director Asian Americans Advancing Justice; and Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
He began with Prof. Tolson, asking "In your judgment, are voter ID laws racist, Professor Tolson?"
"Thank you for that question. So it depends. One thing we have to stop doing is treating all voter ID laws as the same," Tolson replied.
"OK, so your answer, I want to move quickly. So it depends' is your answer," Cruz interrupted, then asked "OK, so what voter ID laws are racist?"
With a smile, Tolson replied "Apologies, Mr. Cruz. Your state of Texas, perhaps."
"OK, so you think the entire state of Texas is racist?" Cruz said, and asked "What about requiring an ID to vote is racist?"
Tolson explained that she wasn't referring to the state, but to "the voter ID law was put into place to diminish the political power of Latinos with racist intent, and had been found to have racist…"
"You're asserting that, what's your evidence for that?" Cruz interrupted again.
"The federal district court that first resolved the constitutionality of Texas's voter ID law," Tolson replied.
"OK, so your view is voter I.D. laws are racist," Cruz said after Tolson had not said that, and had cited a constitutional basis for what she had said.
He then posed the question to Mr. Yang, who agreed with Professor Tolson that "There are some voter ID laws that are racially discriminatory in intent."
Cruz followed up by asking "How about in practice?"
"When I go to vote, they ask me for my I.D., I pull up my I.D., I show it to him. I vote. Is that racist?" Cruz elaborated.
Mr. Yang also cited the U.S. Constitution, telling Cruz "If the law that requires you to do that was motivated by racially discriminatory — under our Constitution — intent…"
Sen. Cruz cut him off to say "Set aside intent, I'm asking about the effect."
"Yes, in effect, I think that there are discriminatory effects from a number of voter ID laws," Yang replied.
Mr. Saenz similarly told Cruz "Yes, in effect, I think many voter ID laws are discriminatory, and in design, they are designed to have that effect."
Watch above via Senate Judiciary Committee.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
Filed Under: Franita TolsonJohn YangTed CruzThomas SaenzVoter IDVoting Rights Previous PostNext Post Previous PostNext Post
Tags
Who is online
60 visitors
That one pretty much blew up in Cruz' face
Cruz: "In your judgment, are voter ID laws racist, Professor Tolson?"
Tolson: "Thank you for that question. So it depends. One thing we have to stop doing is treating all voter ID laws as the same,"
Cruz: "OK, so your answer, I want to move quickly. So it depends' is your answer,"
Cruz: "OK, so what voter ID laws are racist?"
Tolson: "Apologies, Mr. Cruz. Your state of Texas, perhaps."
Cruz: "OK, so you think the entire state of Texas is racist? What about requiring an ID to vote is racist?"
Can you get more obtuse and/or dishonest than Ted Cruz? She clearly made the point that not all ID laws are the same and you can have one law passed that has many elements, some racist, some not which is why she said "it depends". Then when asked for an example she points out Texas and he immediately claims she just called "the entire State of Texas racist". Cruz is a vile worthless sack of dishonest shit. He can't even admit that when Republicans were caught red handed by the courts with voting data by race that they used to craft voter ID laws that would target Latino or black Americans with "surgical precision".
Sen. Ted Cruz to Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT): “Why is it that Connecticut has lower African American registration and lower African American turnout than Georgia and Mississippi?”
Blumenthal: “You know, I’m really not here to debate you…”
Cruz: “That speaks volumes.”
pic.twitter.com/ncP2MpDlaP
I don't really see how this blew up in his face. Just declaring that Voter ID is racist, and then repeating it, isn't very persuasive.