The White House on Friday said it was “deeply concerned” with the arrest of a Democratic state legislator, a black woman, in Georgia for knocking on the governor’s door during a signing ceremony for a controversial voting bill.
State Rep. Park Cannon was seen on a now-viral video rapping on a large brown door leading to GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s office inside the state Capitol. She was forcibly removed, arrested, and is facing two misdemeanor counts after repeatedly telling law enforcement officers she was an elected member of the Peach State legislature.
“I think anyone who saw that video would have been deeply concerned,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday.
“The larger concern here, obviously beyond her being treated in the matter she was, is that law that was put into place,” she added.
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The law changes voting procedures in the state, which President Joe Biden surprisingly won last November over then-President Donald Trump after Republicans had carried it since 1992. (Bill Clinton carried it that year en route to his defeat of then-President George H.W. Bush.)
It alters identification requirements for mail-based voting and makes it illegal to give water or food to people standing in line to vote. Democrats say the latter is inhumane.
Mark Riley, Georgia Department of Public Safety information director, said in a statement that Cannon “was instructed that no one was in the front office and to stop beating on the door.”
“Rep. Cannon moved and went to the Governor’s Ceremonial Office door. This door is marked off with stanchions and a ‘Governor’s Staff Only’ sign. Rep. Cannon went inside the stanchions and began knocking on the door. Rep. Cannon was instructed to stop knocking on the door and that Governor Kemp was having a press conference inside,” Riley added.
“Rep. Cannon continued to knock on the door and was instructed again to stop knocking on the door. She was advised that she was disturbing what was going on inside and if she did not stop, she would be placed under arrest. Rep. Cannon stepped back for a moment and then stepped back up to the door and started knocking on the door again,” Riley said. “She was again advised if she did not stop, she would be arrested for obstruction and disturbing the press conference. Rep. Cannon refused to stop knocking on the door.”
That is when she was arrested and taken away before being charged with obstruction of law enforcement and preventing or disrupting the General Assembly. She was later released on a $6,000 signature bond.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock arrived at the Fulton County Jail to show his support, reportedly greeted by a cheering crowd.
“Thank you all for the your love and support. My family, team and I are going to take some time to rest and refuel so that we may continue this fight, as this is just the beginning,” Cannon wrote in a tweet after being set free.
Republicans in several states, including Georgia, contend big changes are needed after much of the voting in November’s election went online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats, however, say they are merely trying to make it tougher for minorities to vote, hoping to tip states such as Georgia in the GOP’s favor and to keep other potential swing states from turning blue.
On Thursday, Biden, during his first news conference as president, called the GOP bills “sick.”
“What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick. Deciding in some states that you cannot bring water to people standing in line, waiting to vote, deciding that you’re going to end voting at 5 o’clock when working people are just getting off work, deciding that there will be no absentee ballots under the most rigid circumstances,” he said.
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“And so, I am convinced that we’ll be able to stop this because it is the most pernicious thing,” Biden added. “This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle. I mean, this is gigantic what they’re trying to do, and it cannot be sustained.”
