From CNN:
Former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville is favored to beat Democratic Alabama Sen. Doug Jones this fall and join one of the world's most exclusive clubs. Which makes his recent answer to a question about whether or not he supports the Voting Right Acts all the more worrisome.
In
audio obtained by HuffPost from a September 1 call at the Birmingham, Alabama, Sunrise Rotary Club, Tuberville delivers up a heaping portion of word salad when asked about the VRA. Read it for yourself:
"You know, the thing about the Voting Rights Act it's, you know ― there's a lot of different things you can look at it as, you know, who's it going to help? What direction do we need to go with it? I think it's important that everything we do we keep secure. We keep an eye on it. It's run by our government. And it's run to the, to the point that we, it's got structure to it. It's like education. I mean, it's got to have structure. Now for some reason, we look at things to change, to think we're gonna make it better, but we better do a lot of work on it before we make a change."
Tuberville’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the act in 2013 when it struck down its requirement that certain jurisdictions ― Alabama among them ― need to clear proposed changes in voting laws and procedures with the federal government. Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority 5-4 opinion, said the requirement was outdated and invited Congress to update the law.
The House voted last year to restore its core provisions with a new preclearance formula based on a state’s record on voting rights violations. Senate Republicans have resisted such changes, however, and declined to take up an update of the act.
U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D. AL) is facing a tight re-election battle against this idiot but he’s fighting back hard:
Democratic Sen. Doug Jones called Republican challenger Tommy Tuberville “Coach Clueless” on Friday, stepping up attacks on the former college football coach for his recent comments about the coronavirus.
In a live-streamed campaign event, Jones criticized Tuberville’s reaction to tapes of President Donald Trump saying in February that he knew the severity of the coronavirus. Trump said he downplayed the threat to avoid public panic. Tuberville, a former college football coach, told FOX10 said he didn’t see the report. But he later issued a statement saying the “fake news” would criticize Trump no matter what.
“My opponent, who I call Coach Clueless, indicated he doesn’t watch the news so he didn’t know anything about it, which I believe is just a way to avoid the media’s questions,” Jones said in stepping up political attacks on his rival.
Jones and Alabama Democrats have also been educating voters about absentee ballots:
The stated purpose of the event, where Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Christopher England also appeared, was to encourage absentee voting in the fall. Both Jones and England repeated a Democratic slogan, "Every day is Election Day," and encouraged those who could to cast an absentee vote.
"It is one of those rare occasions we have in Alabama to vote at your convenience and just at the convenience of the state," Jones said.
Absentee voting requires a voter to have a valid excuse to cast an absentee ballot. In the last three presidential elections, absentees have made up about 4% of the total vote of the state.
And yes, Joe Biden is returning to help Jones win re-election. From Jones’ Drive-In The Vote event:
Of course, the most notable Democrat to virtually address the event was former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.
Jones was an early endorser of Biden’s presidential bid this cycle, and the senator from Mountain Brook reminisced to the crowd about how much Biden helped him in 2017, when Jones ultimately won a December special election for his current seat. Back in that previous cycle, Jones told the crowd, Biden had encouraged him to run.
“Joe said something to me that I’ll never forget. … At that point in 2017, Donald Trump had only been in office a few months. … So, Joe and I talked about the hope, we talked about the future, we talked about where Alabama has been and where we could go. And I’ll never forget this conversation at home, it’s late one night — because he likes to call me late. And he said, ‘Doug, you have got an opportunity. … You have an opportunity with your background, with your history, with your compassion, with trying to help people. You’ve got an opportunity to redeem the soul of Alabama,'” Jones remarked.
FYI:
Let’s give Jones a boost. Click here to donate and get involved with Jones’ re-election campaign.