MSNBC host Tiffany Cross blamed Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) for “upholding white supremacy” when she said this week that she would not support any Senate rule change that would weaken or remove the filibuster.
Cross hosted a panel discussion on the Democrats’ push to pass two massive bills aimed at overhauling federal elections — the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act — and their attempts to either find a workaround for the filibuster or scrap it entirely in order to make that happen without any Republican support.
“This isn’t about fighting Kamala, this is about fighting for us” @angela_rye tells @TiffanyDCross about the pressure being put on the White House to secure federal voting rights legislation. #CrossConnection pic.twitter.com/0z4HgJxqz3
— The Cross Connection with Tiffany Cross (@CrossConnection) January 15, 2022
Cross posed the question to political commentator Angela Rye, saying, “You know, this is an interesting challenge, Angela, because look, Sinema is a Democrat, but she is in many ways upholding white supremacy. You and I both know what the filibuster was originally used for.”
Cross cut to video of Sinema’s floor speech, during which she explained that in the absence of the filibuster — and the 60-vote threshold that is necessary for any legislation to get around it — the need for debate and in most cases bipartisan cooperation would give way to more extreme policies from both sides.
“I don’t think I can roll my eyes hard enough, and you kind of just want to say, ‘Girl, bye,’ but Angela, I’ll let you take it. What’s your thoughts on the senator’s position?” Cross asked.
“You know, it’s rooted in falsehoods, right? Like this is, we’re talking about voting rights. We’re not talking even about abortion, which we all know has been historically divisive in this country,” Rye replied. “We also know is that voting rights has been supported on a bipartisan level in both chambers of Congress since 1965, when a Democrat signed the bill into law.”
“So what I would tell Senator Sinema is to please reflect on your history. Not a wobbly voice, not an emotional plea for people to remove or to not remove the filibuster when you just could cross that hurdle. Right now, I’m talking about this year, they could cross that hurdle,” Rye continued.
Rye went on to say that it wasn’t really accurate to say that the current bills were “somehow a black Civil Rights bill” — rather, the bills in question were designed to make sure that the United States continue down the “road towards democracy.”
“I agree with Jesse Jackson Jr., who recently said we were moving towards democracy, and this is a way to ensure that we’re back on that right road,” she concluded.
“It is a way to ensure we’re back on that right road, and in this case, she is a hurdle on that road,” Cross agreed.