Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas ripped the White House on Monday over its efforts to push through a sweeping Democratic voting bill, describing it as an all-out “assault” on the American electoral system as well as a “threat” overall to the democratic process.
“The American people are tired of the swamp games and Democrats are starting to show exactly how they feel about our democracy,” Roy told “Fox News Primetime.”
The GOP lawmaker’s comments came in response to a claim made by Vice President Kamala Harris in a wide-ranging interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday in which she said the United States would lose its status as a “role model” for other nations if the Democrat-controlled Congress failed to pass the voting bill in the coming New Year.
The legislation passed the House, where Democrats have a slim majority, but Republicans stymied the effort in the 50-50 Senate, so Democrats there are said to be preparing to take aim at the 60-vote filibuster rule just for this bill in order to get it passed ahead of the 2022 elections.
Republicans oppose the measure because they say it essentially federalizes most all elections by taking them out of the hands of states, where the Constitution says they primarily belong. The bill calls for universal mail-in voting, which critics say leads to fraud; lengthens the time for voting; bars voter ID laws in states; and expands the use of ballot drop boxes, among other provisions.
Roy said both Harris and President Joe Biden, the latter of whom reportedly backs eliminating the filibuster for this one bill, are waging war on “the rule of law.”
“The threat to our republic, the threat to our national security is sitting right there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in both the vice president and the president,” Roy told Fox News. “These are individuals who are at war with the American people. They are at war with the rule of law. They don’t care about it.
“Texas is under assault right now with wide-open borders. China is as empowered as ever. We saw what happened in Afghanistan. We are empowering the Russians with Nord Stream 2, leaving Ukraine dangling in the wind, meanwhile, inflation is skyrocketing and they are focusing on the election,” he added, ticking off a range of issues the administration faces.
Democrats are shifting to the voting overhaul bill after failing to pass Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill — a nearly $2 trillion social and climate spending package — after moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia refused to sign on because he believes more government spending will worsen inflation. After he announced earlier this month he couldn’t support the bill as-is, Democrats then shifted their focus to the voting measure.
“The elections are the very things the American people are going to seek to use next year and they know it they want to do everything they can to try to stop the American people for standing up in defense of this great country,” Roy told the outlet.
“The small businesses, the local communities, the people out here in real America who are actually fighting to save their country. Democrats want to stand as roadblocks in that.”
In her interview with CBS, Harris told correspondent Margaret Brennan: “We have been a role model saying, ‘You can see this and aspire to this and reject autocracies and autocratic leadership.'” Right now, we’re about to take ourselves off the map as a role model if we let people destroy one of the most important pillars of a democracy, which is free and fair elections.”
She noted further that while most Americans don’t see voting rights as “urgent,” she thinks the more the White House focuses on the issue, the more people will see that states are “suppressing the right of the American people to vote.”
Roy called that claim a “lie.”
“There is no question about it this whole idea that they are trying to save the voting rights act is a lie, and if there is anything that characterizes this White House more it’s the word ‘lie,’ because that’s what they’re doing,” he told the network. “They want a federal takeover of elections. They want to put the Department of Justice in your neighborhood the same Department of Justice that had the FBI targeting parents for simply wanting to know what’s going on in their school boards.
“But here’s the good news: Because of COVID, the veil is lifted on the corruption of this administration but also local elections, local school board, the corruption in the school, the corruption from our universities, the corruption in the media,” Roy continued.
“The American people are starting to see that the Democrats are now scurrying around trying to figure out what they can do because they know American people are on to their game.”
Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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