October 23, 2017

Watch Ari Berman Explain How Voter Suppression Handed Wisconsin to Trump

He also breaks down Thomas Farr’s history of defending voter ID laws.

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance President Donald Trump’s pick for a lifetime seat on the Eastern District of North Carolina, Thomas Farr. The Republican lawyer has a history of defending voter suppression laws, including a 2013 law in North Carolina that the NAACP called a “monster” for restricting the right to vote.

Mother Jones senior reporter Ari Berman on Sunday sat down with MSNBC’s Joy Reid to discuss Farr’s controversial nomination, as well as Berman’s recent cover story examining how similar voter suppression measures effectively handed the crucial state of Wisconsin to Trump in the 2016 election.

“If we don’t learn this lesson, if we don’t learn the lesson that voter suppression works and you have to fight to protect the right to vote, history is going to repeat itself in 2018 and 2020,” he told Reid.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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