Politics

North Carolina’s Black Lt. Gov. Says It’s ‘Insulting’ That Democrats Believe Black Voters Need To Be ‘Coddled’

North Carolina’s first black Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson criticized Democrats’ opposition to Georgia’s voting laws at a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

Robinson said that black Americans are more than capable of acquiring an ID to vote as they have overcome historical injustices and hold positions in the highest branches of government during a voter discrimination hearing at the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. He said that the Democrats’ belief that black people are unable to acquire an ID to vote is “preposterous” and “insulting.”

“Am I to believe that black Americans who have overcome the atrocities of slavery, who were victorious in the civil rights movement, and who now sit in the highest levels of this government cannot figure out how to get a free ID to vote?,” Robinson said at the hearing. “That we need to be coddled by politicians because they don’t think we can figure out how to make our voices heard?”

“The notion that black people must be protected from a Free ID to secure their votes is not just insane, it’s insulting,” he said. Robinson, whose mother grew up during the Jim Crow period, criticized the comparison between Jim Crow and Georgia’s voting laws.

“It’s not the same thing, not even close,” Robison said when asked whether Georgia’s voter registration laws are akin to Jim Crow. “Not even on the same scale, not in the same arena.”

Tune in now to watch the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties discuss voting rights.

“Oversight of the Voting Rights Act: The Evolving Landscape of Voting Discrimination” https://t.co/uE7HRdPOXf

— Lawyers Democracy (@lawyersdf) April 22, 2021

Robinson accused Democrats of opposing the voting laws in order to maintain political power.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with justice,” he said. “This has everything to do with power.” 

The Lt. Gov. criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for commemorating the 1960 sit-in at a Woolworth’s counter in Greensboro without inviting Clarence Henderson, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, who had participated in the sit-ins.

Republican Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, who is black, told “Fox & Friends” Wednesday opposing an ID to vote is bigotry since black people are able to attain an ID alongside every other race and ethnicity.

“The American Dream, getting to the middle class depends on having an ID, depends on being able to travel and getting on an airplane, going to school, all kinds of things,” Owens told “Fox & Friends.” “This is true bigotry, it is the soft bigotry of low expectations where all of a sudden black people can’t do what every other race, every other culture does.”

Burgess said on “Fox & Friends” that black people are as smart and tenacious as anyone else.