Hillary Clinton Statement on the 51st Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act

On Saturday, Hillary Clinton released a statement on the 51st Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965. The act guaranteed the right to vote to all American citizens regardless of race. However, in 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the act saying that it is no longer necessary given the current climate. Many have disagreed with the Court’s decision including Clinton, and in her statement, Clinton said that as president she would continue to fight to ensure universal voting rights. A copy of her statement is below.

“Fifty-one years after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, Americans are now facing the most systematic effort to curtail those rights since the era of Jim Crow. Make no mistake, new voter restriction laws in seventeen states have replaced poll taxes and literacy tests as a thinly veiled attempt to achieve an old objective: disenfranchising African Americans, Latinos, low-income people, young people, and people with disabilities.

But we are fighting back. Last week, a court struck down North Carolina’s voter ID requirement, saying it was designed to ‘target African Americans with almost surgical precision.’ Similar restrictions have recently been overturned in Wisconsin, Texas, Michigan, North Dakota, and Kansas after courts found they were intended to discriminate as well.

This November, the notion that every American has a voice in shaping our future is at stake. Donald Trump supports discriminatory voting restrictions — and actually claims that without them in place, the results of American elections should be questioned. It’s a dangerous attempt to undermine the legitimacy of our democracy.

I have a very different view. I believe America is stronger when we expand access to the ballot box, not restrict it. That’s why I’ll fight to repair the Voting Rights Act, expand early voting, and introduce universal, automatic voter registration. 

Upon signing the Voting Rights Act in 1965, President Johnson said the right to vote ‘is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny.’

He was right.”

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News Source: The White House

Hillary Clinton Interviewed by CNN, Attends Events in IN, MI

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Douglass Park Gymnasium in Indianapolis, Indiana during a campaign stop on May 1, 2016.

On Sunday, Hillary Clinton returned to the campaign trail visiting Indiana and Michigan. Her first appearance of the day was in a taped interview on this morning’s State of the Union on CNN. During her interview with Jake Tapper, Clinton refused to call herself the presumptive nominee for the Democratic nomination saying that while she was ahead, there is still work to be done. She also said that she would be willing to work with rival Bernie Sanders in building a progressive platform for the Democratic Party going forward. A video of the full interview is below.

Clinton began her public events today in Indianapolis, Indiana where she spoke at an organizing event. She focused on the importance of the 2016 election and how it will affect key policies and the Supreme Court going forward. Clinton spoke about her manufacturing plans saying, “Indiana has so much potential for the future and I want it to be part of the kind of positive, confident future I’m offering in this election.” Clinton went on to criticize Indiana Governor Mike Pence and the Republican controlled General Assembly for placing strict restriction on abortion access and the passage of a right-to-work law. She said, “I worry very much, and I don’t mean this to be partisan or political, but if you look at what built the American middle class, it really had a lot to do with the rise of the American labor movement. So all the efforts you are seeing in Republican-dominated states to erode (and) undercut unions, I think makes it harder for us to raise middle-class wages, to raise the opportunity for people to go further, to really rebuild the middle class.” A full video from the event is below.

Clinton traveled to Michigan where she was the keynote speaker at the Detroit NAACP Annual Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner. During her speech, she spoke about a number of platform topics including criminal justice reform, prison reform, gun control, and the refinancing of student loan debt. Clinton said that she wanted to continue to the progress of the last eight years. Speaking about President Barack Obama, Clinton said “We cannot let Barack Obama’s legacy fall into Donald Trump’s hands.” A full video of her speech is below.

While in Michigan, Clinton attended a fundraiser in Birmingham that was hosted by Jerry and Caryn Acker, Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hadidi, Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans, Barry and Nicole Goodman, Patti Kukula, and Suzanne Shank.

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News Source: The Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, New York Daily News, Indy Star