MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Alex Padilla

Interview

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VELSHI: Which is literally what they`re doing.

Joining us now, Senator Alex Padilla, Democratic senator from California, former secretary of state of California who knows a lot about state voting rights.

Senator, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

Now, what the Texas representative is saying there is what they`re doing. They literally left their state and went to make their case at the federal government. They said, we can do what we can do and we are willing to do it under pain of arrest. They are all threatened with arrests when they go back. But they said we need the feds to get involved.

You and I have had this discussion before. It can happen, but there are still some holdouts at the federal level.

SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): Yeah, good to be back with you, Ali. You`re absolutely right. So we thank the Texas legislators for their heroism in elevating not just the importance of these voter protections that we are trying to get passed, but the urgency because the 2020 election is around the corner, and it should not take another Selma to get the conscience of the United States Senate, of course, the House of Representatives has already passed the for the people act. For us to get a bill on the president`s desk which we know he will sign.

So just want everybody to know, we are not giving up the fight. There`s been a lot of focus on infrastructure lately, but voting rights continues to be a top priority. We hope to unveil a new proposal in maybe the next week.

VELSHI: Talk to me about that. What do you do? I mean, interesting that there`d be a new proposal. But we do have two proposals there already.

What do you do to break the logjam here, A, with Republicans, but, B, with some people in the Democratic Party to have them say, hey, look, we may need to bust the filibuster once and for all for things as important as voting rights?

PADILLA: Right. Well, you know, we sort of pick up where we left off. We had a measure on the floor that only received 50 votes on a motion to proceed, to begin discussion, to begin the debates. But frankly that was a measure that up until shortly before the vote, did not have all 50 Democrats.

Guess what? We start with a united Democratic caucus. When you have not just myself and Leader Schumer but Senator Manchin and Senator Warnock all in the room, coalescing around a proposal that`s starting from an even stronger position.

And so with the For the People Act as a model, with the experience of not just California but especially California showing how all these measures actually work, they strengthen the integrity of our election and make it easier for people to participate. That`s what our democracy is supposed to be about. I think we gain momentum in either appealing to ten of our Republican colleagues, or short of that, potentially reforming or eliminating the filibuster to finally get this done.

VELSHI: Senator, I really wanted to talk to you on this topic because of your experience as the secretary of state. There are all sorts of things going on in this country making it hard for people to vote -- ballot boxes, voting hours, things like that.

But President Biden made the point one could organize around that. It`s not what we should be doing in this country, but you can figure that out.

What they`re doing in Georgia, you can`t figure that out. This idea of removing an elections official so as to control the outcome of elections, there`s no way to out-organize that.

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That -- that is anti-democratic.

PADILLA: Right, and that`s why time is of the essence. One could argue, well, if it`s that much of a violation of the spirit if not the actual language of the Federal Voting Rights Act, by the time you litigate it and it`s appealed and it goes all the way to the Supreme Court, you know, I`m not comfortable with those chances.

So, again, the importance and the urgency with which we need to act. And knowing that it has worked in places like California, Colorado. All these reforms are proven reforms that, by the way, uphold the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. It`s the act I referred to in that hearing we had in Atlanta a week and a half ago, where it is in federal statutes that government has not just an opportunity, a responsibility to facilitate voter participation.

That means making it easier for eligible people to register, to stay registered, not be purged from the rolls, and options for how to cast their ballots.

VELSHI: Senator, good to see you. California Senator Alex Padilla, we appreciate your time tonight. We`ll be right back.

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