On the eve of the 48th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, the president of the National Urban League, Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League, joined msnbc’s Alex Wagner to discuss voter suppression efforts and the effects so far of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down key parts of the Voting Rights Act.Morial spoke of his recent meeting with President Obama about the future of the Voting Rights Act:
The Voting Rights Act is wounded. In effect, the smoke machine has been taken out of the house, but the president and the attorney general I believe are also strongly committed to this idea that the legislative response, a new congressional act, is not only needed but they will put their efforts and enforcement on crafting and indeed passing it.
But what will they actually be able to get through congress? As Sahil Kapur notes in TPM, the GOP has “little to gain and a lot to lose politically if they cooperate.” Or, as Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas put it, “Ain’t gonna happen…”You can watch the entire segment above.
Billy Silverman