This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. was a little different than most. Every year, Republicans spend the holiday praising the civil rights leader with fawning words — while often stomping out legislation that would align with his beliefs. This year they got called out on their hypocrisy more forcibly than usual. But it wasn’t the GOP who were dragged. It was also two Democrats who are joining those on the right in blocking much-needed voter rights legislation.
Those Democrats, of course, are senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. For months, they’ve refused to support key pieces of Joe Biden’s agenda, to the delight of Republicans. They’re also both against amending or even removing the filibuster, which has easily allowed Republicans, who haven’t controlled any body of government in over a year, to stall Democratic legislation. Sinema and Manchin are facing more opposition than ever before. And on CNN, Don Lemon wound up lumping them in with their Republican brethren.
"That’s bull … That’s BS. And you should be ashamed of yourself. You are a hypocrite." @donlemon unloads on lawmakers who want to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. while standing in the way of voting rights reform by opposing the filibuster. pic.twitter.com/UKX0tQGI2E
— New Day (@NewDay) January 18, 2022
“Inevitably you get the politicians, especially the ones in Washington now who are blocking people’s access to the voting booth, and they want to use Dr. King conveniently,” Lemon railed. “They’re the biggest hypocrites on the planet. Because if Sinema and Manchin really want to honor the legacy of Dr. King and all the people who fought for civil rights and voting rights in this country, what they would do is do a carve-out for voting rights with the filibuster.”
But, Lemon said, “for some reason they are mired in tradition. And they are stuck with these rules that are backwards. And as a former president said, at John Lewis’ memorial service, these are relics of Jim Crow,” he said, referring to Barack Obama. “The filibuster has been used to block civil rights legislation forever.”
Lemon pointed out that rules are always subject to change, pointing out that the Constitution has amendments. He then read from Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” specifically the passage in which he calls out the “white moderate” who claims to want change but stands in its way out of convenience. To Lemon, Sinema and Manchin are those “white moderates.”
“You’re supposed to be a Democrat who espouses to the ideals of Dr. King? That’s bulls*it,” he said. “That’s BS. And you should be ashamed of yourself. You are a hypocrite.”
You can watch Lemon go off above.
(Via CNN)
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