Great stuff from Rep. James Walkinshaw in this interview with CNN earlier today. See below for video and a few highlights:
- “Yeah, I mean, what’s taking place in Louisiana is an outrageous assault on on democracy. I mean, the fact that the election was taking place, people were voting and the Republicans in that state stopped it because they didn’t like the direction it was going, every single American, Republican, Democrat, independent, should should be outraged about it….I think the other thing is like look, if you look at this redistricting that’s taking place across the South now, where it’s a grab based on race and power, Republicans are going to come to regret it because in advance of the 2028 election cycle, there’s a lot more blue states that can go back and redistrict again. We can have a West Coast where there’s not a single Republican district. That can be done. I don’t think that’s good for the country. Be much better off we join hands and end this redistricting war and ban partisan gerrymandering. But clearly that’s not the direction Republican control states.”
- “I’m from the Commonwealth of Virginia. I live very close to the Fairfax County Courthouse. And from roughly 1904 until the 1960s, if you were black and you wanted to vote at that courthouse, you had to…pay a poll tax, or perform a literacy test. And they said, ‘it’s not about race, right? There’s no racist intent here. We just have some standard for everyone who votes.’ Supreme Court’s basically saying the same thing. It’s a return to Jim Crow in terms of how we draw districts.”
- “It was nonsensical…If Donald Trump saw a video, if a video existed, he would fire Howard Lutnick, because what Trump doesn’t like is someone who represents him looking like they are ridiculous.”
