Sen. Graham: Dems’ voting bill is the ‘biggest power grab’ in US history

By Jenny Goldsberry

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday Night to react to Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) latest version of the SR-1 voting bill. This bill calls for a commission to redistrict states, ballot harvesting and no longer requires an ID to vote.

“Well, one, I like Joe Manchin a lot,” Graham said. “But we had the largest turnout in the history of the United States and states are in charge of voting in America. So I don’t like the idea of taking the power to redistrict away from state legislators.”

The South Carolina senator admitted this would not be in his party’s favor. “You’re having people move from blue states to red states. Under this proposal, you would have some kind of commission redraw the new districts, and I don’t like that. I want states where people are moving to have control over how to allocate new congressional seats.” Therefore, his party would remain a majority in those districts.

Wallace asked Graham if he could “go along with the Manchin stripped down version” of the bill anyway.

“So, as much as I like Joe Manchin, the answer would be no,” Graham responded. “In my view, SR. 1 is the biggest power grab in the history of the country. It’s just a bad idea and it’s a problem that most Republicans are not going to sign. They’re trying to fix a problem most Republicans have a different view of.” 

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.