Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson joined MSNBC's Martin Bashir and chastises Republicans for pursuing Voter ID laws for the primary purpose of defeating President Obama.MB: good afternoon.
EBJ: good afternoon.
MB: lawmakers in texas must know that up to 25% of african-americans in this country do not have access to a valid form of i.d. and given that there are investigations intovoter fraud produced virtually no evidence whatsoever, is this law simply designed to disenfranchise black and other minorities?
EBJ: well, indeed it is. we all recognize it is astonishing that there can be stories to deny it. we all know if you have lived as long as i have or less, you know that if your skin is black or brown or you have a spanish is your name, the -- conservatives would rather you not vote. and it is coming up this year when we have president obama is up for re-election and when you look at how he got elected and he was truly elected, not selected the way the previous president was, you could tell that young people voted heavier than ever before. they are going after the college aged kids to make sure they cannot use college i.d. with a picture and making it difficult for them to even vote and the seniors, people 45 to 85, vote heavily and voted heavily. they are going after them. and for us to try to act as if we don't recognize this shows that we don't know what is going on. the interesting thing is that they do not expect us to acknowledge and recognize most of us have been through this before.
MB: yes.
EBJ: we have known about jim crowe in this country.
MB: mitt romney never mentioned voter suppression , voter i.d. or even the mits of voter fraud today. could it be that he agrees with the republicans' state representative from pennsylvania who said this? listen to this, ma'am.
Video of Republican State Rep: voter i.d., which is going to allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania , done.
MB: that's an outrageous admission and disgraceful and yet it would appear mr. romney rather likes that.
EBJ: yes, it is an honest assessment. it is very clear why they are doing this now. they do not want president obama to win re-election. and it is so ironic that this has been a civil rights fight all of my existence in this country. and yet, today, the 21st century , we are still fighting poll tax. had get it, give it to us by charging us to vote or passing some kind of unconscionable test, or they are putting it out you have to have a very strictly identifiable voter i.d. and you can have a driver's license but if you are on a college campus that address is not there, it is not valid. so they are trying to make sure that young people and minorities do not vote. and just as simple as that for it to be any other explanation, it has taken all of the rest of us who are affected by this as fools.
MB: yes. i want to play for you what mitt romney said on where else but fox news a short time ago in response to his being booed and at his mention of wanting to end the affordable care act , he was speaking before the naacp . take a listen.
Video of Mitt Romney: we expected that, of course. you know, i'm going to give the same message to the naacp that i give across the country which is that obamacare is killing jobs.
MB: the implication of that answer, if i may suggest it to you, ma'am, is that he went to the naacp in order to provoke that kind of reaction. he knew it was coming. that's what he just said.
EBJ: you know, the interesting thing is romney does not even know who he is. he changes with every audience. it is so interesting he would try to be bold enough to present this as a sound idea when he was governor, he was one of the few states that brought up and made sure that a law of this sort was passed. now it is the worst thing that ever happened. let me tell you, you can talk about it killing jobs. i don't believe it for any type of chance. pit also -- keeps from killing people. people can survive with health care . and everybody born needs health care .
MB: congresswoman johnson from texas , thank you so much.
EBJ: thank you very much.
