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Bill Clinton on Georgia’s new voting restrictions: ‘An attack on our democracy’

by Brooke Seipel - 03/26/21 7:41 PM ET

Former President Clinton criticized Georgia’s new voting law signed this week, calling it “a blatant attempt to suppress” Black votes and “an attack on our democracy.”

“The law signed in GA today is a blatant attempt to suppress the votes of Black Americans and an attack on our democracy,” Clinton wrote on Twitter, linking to an event about voting rights that took place earlier this week. “I spoke with Stacey Abrams about this and other efforts to restrict voting rights and what we can do to promote free & fair elections.”

The law signed in GA today is a blatant attempt to suppress the votes of Black Americans and an attack on our democracy. I spoke with Stacey Abrams about this and other efforts to restrict voting rights and what we can do to promote free & fair elections. https://t.co/PaUzFvnz5X pic.twitter.com/16uftRxyyA

— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) March 26, 2021

The Republican-backed law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Thursday evening, includes a range of new restrictions on voting — such as limits on the use of ballot drop boxes and photo identification requirements for absentee voting — and comes after the GOP endured significant defeats in the 2020 election and January Senate runoffs.

Republicans argue the law is necessary to crack down on voter fraud, and former President Trump praised the changes on Friday.

“Congratulations to Georgia and the Georgia State Legislature on changing their voter Rules and Regulations,” Trump said in a statement through his political action committee Save America. “They learned from the travesty of the 2020 Presidential Election, which can never be allowed to happen again. Too bad these changes could not have been done sooner!”

But Democrats argue it targets the Black voters who turned out in force last fall and again in January to support their party’s candidates.

Clinton is not the only prominent Democrat critical of the law. President Biden on Friday sharply condemned the law as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”

“This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It must end,” said Biden. “We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act.”

The new Georgia law is already facing a legal challenge from a civil rights group, which argues in its filing that the changes illegally suppress voters’ rights in violation of constitutional protections and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Meanwhile, House Democrats earlier this month passed the For the People Act, a sweeping voting rights and election reform bill that would make it easier to vote by requiring states to offer mail-in ballots, enact same-day voter registration and expand early voting.

Republicans have denounced the legislation as an overreach of states’ rights.