Kamala Harris on the SCOTUS nomination

Brut America

Health care, reproductive rights, equality, voting rights — Sen. Kamala Harris says they're all under threat if Amy Coney Barrett makes it to the Supreme Court.

Transcript

00:00President Trump and his party and Judge Barrett will overturn the Affordable Care Act and they won't stop there.

00:09They have made clear that they want to overturn Roe v. Wade and restrict reproductive rights and freedoms.

00:19Judge Barrett has a long record of opposing abortion and reproductive rights.

00:24There is no other issue that so disrespects and dishonors the work of Justice Ginsburg's life

00:34than undoing the seminal decision in the court's history that made it clear a woman has a right to make decisions about her own body.

00:47But that's where President Trump and his party and Judge Barrett are.

00:53So let's make it clear where we are. Let's vote for health care. Vote for the Affordable Care Act.

01:04Vote as if your life, your choice depends on it because it does.

01:12Make it clear to President Trump and to every Republican senator that if they're determined to get rid of your health care

01:20you'll be just as determined to vote them out of office.

01:25And second, vote as if your right to vote depends on it because it does.

01:34In 2013, the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby v. Holder gutted the hearts of the Voting Rights Act.

01:43Soon after, numerous states including Texas and North Carolina and Alabama and Mississippi

01:51enacted discriminatory laws designed to suppress the people's right to vote and targeted people of color and students.

02:01Justice Ginsburg wrote that the decision was like, quote, throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm.

02:09Right here in North Carolina, a voter suppression law was described by a federal court

02:15as having targeted African-Americans with almost surgical precision to deny us the right to vote.

02:24Surgical precision.

02:28After the people of Florida voted to grant formerly incarcerated citizens the right to vote,

02:35recently enacted a modern-day poll tax to make it harder for those citizens to exercise that very right in this upcoming election.

02:46And this modern-day poll tax was upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in large part because of judges appointed by Donald Trump.

02:59But you see, here's the thing. He knows he can't win if the people vote.

03:06Donald Trump is weak, so he is throwing up every roadblock he can to try and suppress the vote.

03:15And we, the people, cannot let him get away with it.

03:21Third, what's at stake?

03:23Our ability to make a living, take care of our families, and dismantle systemic racism.

03:32That's at stake, too.

03:34For example, so court decisions can determine your ability to earn a living wage,

03:41to receive equal pay for equal work, or collectively bargain for your rights at work.

03:49With an extra vote on the court, Donald Trump and his party will continue their attack on laws that keep our air clean,

03:57and our food and water safe, and attack any legislation that addresses climate change.

04:04They will also continue to divide us and ignore the systemic racism that still plagues our society.

04:11Their decisions could fail to hold the actors in our criminal justice system accountable.

04:17Victims of abuse of power by law enforcement could be less likely to succeed on their civil rights claims.

04:24The due process rights of criminal defendants could be less likely to be vigorously enforced.

04:32These are the decisions that would upend Justice Ginsburg's life's work to uphold basic liberties of all Americans,

04:42regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or economic station.

04:51I know that it feels sometimes like this is just too much.

04:56Too much for us to take, too much for our country to take.

05:00And I think that's what they want you to believe.

05:03They want you to feel tired.

05:05They want you to feel like your fight doesn't matter.

05:10But we will not give up.

05:15And we will not give in.

05:18We will not let the infection that President Trump has injected into the presidency and into Congress

05:27that has paralyzed our politics and pitted Americans against each other spread to the United States Supreme Court.

05:37This election is about more than the presidency or the Senate or the Supreme Court.

05:45This election is about our democracy.

Category

Transcript

Recommended