Pennsylvania’s Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate, John Fetterman, previously proclaimed that he is vehemently opposed to voter ID laws because he believes poor people and “people of color” are less likely to carry their ID than those who are rich and white.
The moment came during a now-unearthed interview from December 2021, in which Fetterman is documented discussing efforts in Pennsylvania to “pass a constitutional amendment making sure that universal voting ID for every time you vote.”
“Because [Republican state legislators] understand that at any given time, there’s tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who typically are on the poorer side and are people of color that are less likely to have their ID at any one given time,” he said.
On separate occasions, Fetterman has also openly referred to voter ID laws as “outrageous,” “illogical,” and “unfair,” with the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor even going as far as to compare them to Jim Crow laws.
Pennsylvania Democrat Senate candidate John Fetterman thinks requiring an ID to vote is "outrageous," "illogical," and "unfair." pic.twitter.com/ZZx32zTDU1
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 20, 2022
Fetterman’s stereotypical remarks that only white and wealthy Americans know how to obtain voter ID are not only debunked by the fact that the vast majority of non-white Americans have some form of government ID but that the vast majority of Americans — of all races — support requiring American citizens to show ID to vote.
A 2021 Rasmussen Reports survey on the issue found that 75 percent of U.S. voters “believe photo identification should be presented before voting,” including 69 percent of black Americans. A separate 2021 poll from Monmouth University also found wide bipartisan approval for requiring ID to vote, with “91% of Republicans, 87% of independents and 62% of Democrats” all supporting the policy.
Despite his insinuation that financially poor and non-white Americans don’t possess the wherewithal to acquire an ID to vote, Fetterman is hardly the only Democrat to push such a brazenly insulting narrative. Imaginary-Governor of Georgia Stacy Abrams, for instance, last year referred to Georgia’s recent elections bill, “which included expanding voter ID laws,” as “racist” and “a redux of Jim Crow in a suit and tie.”
President Joe Biden has also repeatedly pushed the lie that voter ID requirements oppress certain segments of the population, with the then-Vice President saying in 2014 that such a policy is an “attempt to repress minority voting masquerading as an attempt to end corruption.”
Biden has also gone out of his way to villainize Republican efforts to enact election integrity reforms. In July 2021, the president issued a stunningly grotesque statement in which he referred to newly enacted voting laws as a “21st century Jim Crow assault.”
Pres. Biden says the 28 Republican voting measures enacted across 17 states are a "21st century Jim Crow assault." pic.twitter.com/ip7zQAsGwn
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 13, 2021
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Source: The Federalist
