Hillary Clinton has a new excuse for losing the 2016 election: The Supreme Court rolling back the Voting Rights Act.
The twice-failed presidential candidate voiced her latest electoral grievance at an American Federation of Teachers event on Tuesday.
Clinton blamed the Court’s 2013 ruling striking down part of the Voting Rights Act as unconstitutional for her most recent ballot box defeat.
"Now I was the first person who ran for president in more than 50 years without the protection of the Voting Rights Act,” Clinton said. “And let me just say it makes a difference. We saw that once again during the 2018 midterm elections which were a case study in voter suppression. Voters faced intimidation and harassment that echoed some of the worst chapters in our nation's history.
Voter ID requirements amounted to a modern day poll tax. Voter ID requirements, which were literally made up for the purpose of preventing certain people from actually being able to cast a vote that would be counted. We saw fewer voting places, long lines and malfunctioning equipment — again, in certain places.”
Clinton erred in saying the Voting Rights Act no longer exists. The Court struck down the VRA’s Section 4(b), which contained a formula states had to use to to determine whether they needed clearance from the federal government before altering voting practices. Section 4(b) relied on data more than 40 years old, making it invalid, the Court ruled.
Clinton also blamed “voter suppression” for Stacey Abrams losing the Georgia governor’s race in 2018.
“We saw what happened in Georgia where Stacey Abrams should be governor of that state,” Clinton told the teachers union. “Registered voters were kept off the rolls. Their registrations just piled up in some back office with no intention ever enroll them so that they could actually vote.”
In 2016, Clinton said Trump not accepting the outcome of the then-forthcoming election would be a “direct threat to our democracy.”