Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / 'New jelly beans in the jar strategy' Sharpton says Trump mail-in voting order like Jim Crow test

Transcript

'New jelly beans in the jar strategy' Sharpton says Trump mail-in voting order like Jim Crow test · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: 25 states are suing again to stop President Trump's latest
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: election power grab after the Supreme Court cleared the way
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: for his new rules on mail ballots. In a new
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: response this morning, the DOJ is defending the action. We
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: could get a ruling from a federal judge as soon
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: as today, so stay with MSNOW because we will be
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: covering that all day. But for now, states must go
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: through a series of added steps to get their mail
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: ballots officially sanctioned by the federal government. And if they
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: don't or if there's a clerical error along the way,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the Postal Service is authorized to just not deliver you
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a ballot. State officials say the changes are coming way
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: too late in the game. For example, Arizona told the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: court it would take one thousand two hundred and eighty
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: hours just to learn the new system and upload data.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Most Arizona mail ballots go out October 7th. So they
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: have about 40 days to pull this off. Let's discuss
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: with MSNOW political analyst and Boston Globe columnist, Kimberly Atkins-Store,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and the Reverend Al Sharpton, who is about to celebrate
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: 15 years of Politics Nation on MSNOW.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Rev, congrats to you, and thank you both for joining me.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Kim, I want to start with you as the lawyer
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: among the three of us.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Where do you see this case going at this point, right?
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: We've seen it move kind of fast this week, or
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: at least a lot of news coming this fast. What
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: are you watching out for, and how long until this resolves?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Because the election's happening no matter what.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the way I see this playing out, Eugene, is
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: just chaos. We've seen in this week alone. the order
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: was halted and then it wasn't, but then it could
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: very well, as early as today, be halted again now
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: that the federal government has actually put out these final
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: rules and given the state something to actually hold on to.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: The Supreme Court earlier on Monday ruled that it was
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: too early in the game for the states to.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Step in because the rule wasn't even out.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Well, now the rule is out and now we're seeing
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: the litigation really ramp up. There are at least three
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: lawsuits that have been filed over this probably more. But
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: in the meantime, in states, it's absolute chaos. People who
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: run elections don't know what to do. They don't know
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: what the rules will be. They don't even know if
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: they could comply with these new federal rules if they
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: wanted to. And just one last point to remember that
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: these new federal rules are trying to make it harder
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: for people to cast They're ballots. It's an effort for
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: the federal government to control who gets to vote by mail.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Voting by mail is popular with Democrats and Republicans, but
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: they're trying to control who is able to even use
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: that system. That sounds like a government that is afraid
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: of what the voters will actually say, and they're stepping
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: in to try to put their thumb on the scale.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Rev, you understand probably better than anyone on earth what
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: it is like when a government sows confusion and chaos.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: In an election.
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  Speaker 1: Trump has handed unprecedented power to the USPS, power that
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the Constitution does not give him to give to the USPS.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: At the very same time, him and his allies have
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: been accused of gutting USPS and defunding them and trying
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to sabotage the Postal Service.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Is that a coincidence? Those kinds of things happen at
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the same time?
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  Speaker 4: No, it's not a coincidence. I don't think it's a
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: coincidence at all.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: I think the fact that he knows that he has
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: in many ways gutted postal services means that he knows
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: that the more confusion, the more they can't handle, the
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: more you're disenfranchising voters. And I think that the goal
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: here is not to have a smooth transition.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: The goal is to disenfranchise voters.
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: The less people that vote in their opinion, the more
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: they have the possibility of maintaining power for the MAGA movement.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: So I think that this is a real question of
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: voting rights. As you know, I'm here in Washington today.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: There's a huge march tomorrow around voting rights issues. that
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: many of us progressives and establishment, everybody from Hakeem to
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: AOC are speaking at, because voting rights is under assault.
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  Speaker 4: This is just a maneuver.
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  Speaker 5: So now we don't say how many jelly beans in
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: the jar, otherwise you can't vote. Now we play the
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: game at the post office when you must have these
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: qualifications for us to send you a ballot if, in fact,
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: we can Give orientation to the postal services on even
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: how to do that.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: That's the new jelly beans in a Josh strategy.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Kimberly, I was the kid who was a nerd who
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: wanted to be a lawyer, but did not.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Didn't want to be a football player. They wanted to
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: be a lawyer. And so, you know, I have.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Always been obsessed with the Constitution and thinking about if
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: it's not in the Constitution, you can't do it.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: That is kind of how we're all taught, whether we're
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: obsessed with the law and the legal system or we're
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: people who care about civics and we're taught civics.
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  Speaker 2: It's not happening anymore. Open the schools.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: But when you hear that and we see that the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: president of the United States has no role in the elections,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the Constitution is very clear that that the states will
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: operate the elections. Meanwhile, the president has this executive order
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: that calls on the attorney general to prioritize the investigation
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: and potential prosecution of state officials who, quote, issue federal
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: ballots to individuals not eligible to vote in a federal election.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: It seems like this case should be a slam dunk.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: The Supreme Court chose not to do it on the merits.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: They could have. Sometimes they go do that. They make
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the decision. They are the Supremes.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: How quickly do you think we're going to get an
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: answer here on what actually the president and the USPS
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: can do in these elections?
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Well, I think that depends. I mean, I agree with
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: you that the constitutional issue here seems to be very clear.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: I think that's why states were so eager to try
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: to block the order from the jump, but the Supreme
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: Court kind of brushed them back saying that it was
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: too early because They had not suffered any sort of
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: cognizable injury yet since it hadn't gone into effect. Well,
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: now we have a little bit more meat on that
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: bone and we're seeing these cases be refiled. I have
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: no doubt that judges like Judge Talwani in Massachusetts will
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: move as quickly as possible because the attorneys general are
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: urging that because this is a crucial matter of time.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: It's weeks away.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: From the midterm elections. And even if everything was settled
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: and crystal clear, if all the rules to the road
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: were known today, it would probably be difficult to impossible
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: for them to impose it. So the longer it lasts,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: the more difficult it would be and the more chaos,
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: whatever the ultimate ruling will be. But, you know, in
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: terms of the clearness of the Constitution, I want to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: get back to that. While the Supreme Court did rule
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: on a procedural issue and didn't get to the merits
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: of it, One of the questions that they have to
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: answer at that procedural stage is who is likely, whether
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: the government is likely to ultimately succeed on its claim.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: And it seemed to think that it was, which is
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: one thing that is very concerning to me. Hopefully, if
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: they dig deeper into this, if they give another read
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: to the Constitution, they will see that it's up to
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: the states to carry out elections, as they always have.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: And I do also hope they step back and see
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: what the ultimate goal here. Rev is absolutely right. This
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: is a disenfranchisement gambit. It's also an effort to give
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump, one of the biggest election deniers that the
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: nation has ever known, more fodder to say, well, see,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: you can't trust the elections. And even just sowing that
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: doubt in the minds of voters about the election results
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: can pay benefit to him as the way he sees it.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: But it's so anti-democratic. This is something that happens in
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: places like Russia and Venezuela. This is not the way
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: things are supposed to work in the United States.