Directing the Removal of United States Armed Forces From Hostilities Within or Against the Islamic Republic of Iran That Have Not Been

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, let me thank my good friend Senator Padilla from California for his good work on this issue and so many other issues of civil rights and of keeping our democracy secure and safe, of voting rights. He is an amazing asset not just to this Senate but to California and to the country, and I thank him for his continued, ever-present leadership on these vital issues, which I know he feels so deeply about.

Now, in America, voters choose their leaders; leaders don't choose their voters. But MAGA has launched a coordinated campaign to handpick the electorate in 2026. That effort spans all three branches of government.

Donald Trump has virtually made election denialism a prerequisite for serving in his administration. You have to lie about the election--lie to yourselves, lie to other people--to get a job in any sensitive area in this administration. Trump and his band of MAGA loyalists have jumped at every opportunity to intimidate election officials, to attack vote-by-mail, to seize voter data, and to undermine our elections in any way they can.

In Congress, Trump's MAGA majorities keep pushing the SAVE Act, which we know would disenfranchise tens--tens--of millions of voters.

With the SAVE Act, Republicans would purge millions of American citizens from the voter rolls through a screening algorithm designed by none other than the trio--the evil trio--of Trump, Vought, Musk, and their DOGE squad.

And as I have been saying for months--I started saying this months ago--it is Jim Crow 2.0. And when I started saying it, now when I say it, the MAGA right goes crazy. They get angry. They get apoplectic. Do you know why? They know it is true.

They know it is Jim Crow 2.0, and they know they are doing everything they can to steal our election, rather than compete in our election.

The radical rightwing majority on the Supreme Court has aided Trump's assault on our democracy every step of the way. The Callais decision was the MAGA Court's latest move to resurrect Jim Crow South, upending half a century of precedent and progress when it gutted the Voting Rights Act for which Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many others marched, bled, and ultimately gave their lives.

The decision issues a deliberate blow to democracy, stripping voters of protections while handing MAGA politicians free rein to rig maps that drown out their voices, especially those of historically disenfranchised communities. Callais did not come out of nowhere. Oh, no. For years, beginning with Chief Justice Roberts in the awful and evil Shelby County decision, the Republican-appointed majority, led by Roberts, chipped away at the Voting Rights Act in decision after decision.

Indeed, Roberts began railing against the Voting Rights Act since the early eighties. Now Roberts says his job is to call balls and strikes-- bull. For someone who famously said that his job is ``to call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat,'' John Roberts sure is swinging for the fences to help Donald Trump subvert our elections. Democrats are not going to wait until the damage is done. Oh, no. That is why Senate Democrats launched our Election Protection Task Force, the most expansive election protection effort our caucus has ever undertaken.

We are going to bring together lawyers and observers, rapid-response teams, cyber security experts, State and local officials, and the most renowned election experts in the country to protect our democracy before, during, and after this election. We are going to fight like hell to make sure our elections belong to the voters--not to Donald Trump.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source