Rep. Maxine Waters accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of not caring about black citizens.
The California Democrat said on Monday that McConnell has proven he does not care about black people because he has blocked a House bill championed by the late Rep. John Lewis that expands the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She urged Kentucky voters to vote against McConnell in November.
“We’re going to have to vote to make sure that McConnell does not get reelected. He’s in a reelection campaign. We have a lot of hope that he is going to be defeated. That’s the only thing we can really hope for,” Waters said.
“McConnell does not mean black people any good,” she added. “He does not care. He’s not about the business of correcting what is wrong with the voting rights that’s been basically undermined by the Supreme Court.”
Republicans have opposed Lewis’s bill because it will strip away the ability of at least 11 states to make their own voting laws by reinstating a section of the 1965 bill that required states that had previously suppressed black voters to consult the federal government before changing election laws.
“I would like to say that somehow they’re going to honor John Lewis and his sacrifices, his work, and the law that he introduced, and it was passed in the House, and they were going to move to pass it, but I cannot tell you that’s going to happen,” Waters said.
“I cannot tell you that’s going to happen because McConnell and too many of the Republican senators really believe in voter suppression. They do not wish to have one vote, one person. They do not wish to have fair voting in this country,” she added.
