Stacey Abrams: ‘I don’t believe that it’s necessary to wholly eliminate the filibuster’

Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams said on Sunday that she didn’t believe it was necessary to “wholly eliminate the filibuster” in order to pass bills supported by Senate Democrats.

“I don’t believe that it’s necessary to wholly eliminate the filibuster to accomplish the purposes of passing these bills,” Abrams told CNN host Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

“The Elections Clause in the Constitution guarantees that the Congress alone has the power to regulate the time, manner and place of elections. That is a power that is sacrosanct,” Abrams said. “We are watching across this country as individual legislators try to use the big lie to restrict access to the right to vote.”

Abrams argued that bills regarding voting rights should be exempt from the filibuster.

Abrams has been credited with playing an enormous part in turning Georgia blue in the 2020 election, increasing voter turnout through her organization Fair Fight.

During the interview, Abrams also said she agreed with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who said efforts by Georgia Republicans to restrict voter access were racist.

“First of all, I do absolutely agree that it’s racist. It is a redux of Jim Crow in a suit and tie,” Abrams said. “It’s not that there was a question of security. In fact, the secretary of state and the governor went to great pains to assure America that Georgia’s elections were secure, and so the only connection that we can find is that more people of color voted, and it changed the outcome of elections in a direction that Republicans do not like.”

Stacey Abrams says she agrees with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that efforts by GOP lawmakers in Georgia to make it more difficult to vote is “racist.”

“It is a redux of Jim Crow, in a suit and tie.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/nDVCaBZRvH

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 14, 2021

The Georgia legislature has considered a host of bills including ones that restrict mail-in voting and early voting that Democrats say would restrict voting access. The measures are backed by Republicans who want to impose new voting restrictions after President Biden won the state.