jesse: opening our hearts to end this uncivil war, but then after the speech, something happened, joe biden failed, he failed in every way possible, inflation has hit record high because of record spending. energy costs are through the roof, 6 million migrants have crossed our borders. we are on the verge of what some say will be the worst recession since the 80s. the world is on the brink of nuclear war. what do you do? when you fail, you blame. he first bill and i start unvaccinated, he told us the real problem was that those three breeders who won t wear masks. a says republicans want to take away your right to vote, about gun nuts are those who legally say that by your gun, maga radicals, catch all umbrella term of extremists. by the time biden arrived, at the announcement of his reelection campaign a few weeks ago, he d given up being a uniter, extremists are lurking
this sacred right is under assault with incredible intensity like i ve never seen. going to fight like heck with every tool at my disposal for its passage. that bill would reverse republican voter restrictions, but as of this morning it has no path to becoming law. democrat joe manchin confirmed in an op-ed that he will vote against any voting law that isn t bipartisan. he writes federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both democrats and republicans coming together to find a pathway forward, or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic. strong words from manchin at a time when he is under a lot of pressure, errol. yes. what should democrats do at this point knowing that that is the state of play? well, you first have to start off with the reality that there
bill i think a lot of them recognize is not it to move forward on this issue. it may be the voting rights restoration act. as you noted, while that had wide bipartisan support in the past, there s only one republican in the senate now willing to support it so this is a gulf that s really hard to reach at the federal level. i remember this bill being introduced in 2019 really much more as an anti-corruption bill. it was much more about campaign spending. the for the people act. specifically because the campaign act in 2018 democrats were running on i m not taking corporate money. so this was much less on voting rights. it was still in there but they led with the money piece. so it was a catch-all. to me the big question is the one thing democrats do have that they didn t have, say, in 2020 is the justice department. i do wonder what role the justice department can play. you re right, you can t do much at the federal legislating level, but to have the arm of
so that might be another path forward for democrats. but then the new york times in an editorial makes the point that democrats are also with the for the people fighting the wrong battle. they say the legislation attempts to accomplish more than is currently feasible while failing to address some of the clearest threats to democracy, especially the prospect that state officials will seek to overturn the will of the voters. so are they fighting the wrong battle here? well, i mean let s first remember that this bill was written, the first bill was written as a message bill at a time when democrats really had no path. they didn t have the white house, they didn t have the senate, to enacting anything. so this was like in a perfect world what would a voting rights bill look like. we re not in that world right now. we re in a world where as you said joe manchin has basically veto power over whether this gets through congress. by the way, he s not the only democrat in the senate or the h