'The ballots are discarded': Republican rush to remove Black representation sparks outraged pushback

0:01 voted when Louisiana's Republican governor, Jeff Landry,

0:05 stopped elections that were already underway in his state last week.

0:08 In response to the conservative justices on the U .S.

0:11 Supreme Court effectively ending the Voting Rights Act of 1965,

0:15 Governor Landry declared an emergency and moved to change the rules mid-game,

0:21 allowing Republicans in his state to erase

0:23 the state's majority Black congressional districts.

0:27 So even though a third of the state is Black,

0:29 Black voters would elect zero of the state's members of Congress.

0:32 Sure, the election had already started.

0:34 Sure, tens of thousands of people had already cast their votes.

0:37 Of course there was chaos and anger at the polls.

0:40 But no, Governor Jeff Landry told 60 Minutes this weekend,

0:43 no, he said none of that is my fault.

0:48 Voting was already happening as we sit here right now.

0:51 More than 45 ,000 ballots have been returned.

0:55 What happens to those?

0:56 Those ballots are discarded and those voters will vote again in November.

1:00 You say that like it's not a big deal.

1:02 Well, it's not a big deal.

1:05 It's not my vote.

1:06 It's not my fault.

1:08 It's not my fault.

1:08 Those votes will all be discarded.

1:10 It's not my fault.

1:13 This week, residents of Louisiana began

1:15 an effort to recall Governor Jeff Landry.

1:18 They will need to gather more than

1:19 a half million valid signatures from Louisiana

1:21 voters by October to move forward with that, which will not at all be easy.

1:25 But honestly, people want to do something.

1:27 There's a lot of people in Louisiana right now

1:30 who are just rip roaring about what's going on.

1:32 And quite understandably, I mean,

1:34 this was the scene inside the Louisiana Statehouse last

1:36 week as Republicans work to jam through the new maps.

1:39 Protesters packing the halls demanding to be heard.

1:42 It's frankly some of the same in Alabama,

1:45 where Republicans are trying to take away at least one

1:48 of the two congressional districts in Alabama represented by a black lawmaker.

1:53 Protesters saying we shall overcome outside the House chamber.

1:56 Some of them dragged away by security CERTAINLY GOVERNMENT, MAJORITY GUARDS.

2:00 SAME THING IN TENNESSEE WHERE REPUBLICANS HAVE PASSED

2:03 new maps that break up majority black Memphis,

2:06 so Republicans can run the table for the whole state.

2:09 Protesters blew whistles and booed and shouted shame

2:12 as Republican lawmakers walked in to cast their votes.

2:15 I should tell you, in Tennessee,

2:17 A big slice of black residents in Memphis will now

2:20 have their votes folded into a white county called Williamson County.

2:24 Williamson County literally still has a confederate flag on their county seal.

2:29 But they'll have just the right size of a slice

2:33 of black voters from Memphis to make sure they can never,

2:36 with our other Memphis residents, elect a member of Congress of their choosing.

2:42 There's a reason why people are calling this Jim Crow 2 .0.

2:45 This really is plainly an effort to drag us

2:49 back to the post-Reconstruction era after the Civil War, right?

2:52 The so-called redemption of the old confederacy where the slave states

2:55 reverted to giving black Americans zero say in their own democracy.

3:00 And the federal government let them do it.

3:04 Tonight, the conservatives on the U .S.

3:06 Supreme Court gave their blessing to the no

3:09 black voters need apply new map in Alabama,

3:11 even though more than a quarter of the population of Alabama is black.

3:14 Nothing about this is subtle.

3:16 People recognize absolutely what is happening.

3:18 They are energized and they are fighting for it

3:21 in the halls of our state capitals and also in the courts,

3:24 where in some cases they are getting some excellent help.

3:28 Our next guest led the civil rights division at the U .S.

3:31 Department of Justice under President Biden when

3:34 it was still the Department of Justice.

3:36 Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark came to that job

3:39 after defending voting rights at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

3:42 Now she serves as general counsel at the NAACP.

3:45 Right now she is leading the legal battle

3:47 against what Republicans are trying to do in Tennessee.

3:50 Joining us now, Kristen Clark, General Counsel for the NAACP,

3:54 former Assistant Attorney General of the United States.

3:56 Ms.

3:56 Clark, it's a real honor to have you here.

3:58 Thank you for making time tonight.

3:59 Thank you for having me.

4:02 There's a lot of fight back on this issue

4:04 and there's a lot of passion on this issue,

4:07 and I think people see it very clearly.

4:08 What I think people don't know how to assess is whether this is gone,

4:14 whether this ship has sailed,

4:16 whether the fight back has any prospects of success.

4:19 I'm interested to hear about that for your lawsuit in Tennessee,

4:22 but also how you view this more broadly.

4:24 I THINK HISTORY SHOWS THAT YEAH, WELL,

4:28 IT IS NO DOUBT A CHALLENGING MOMENT IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.

4:33 AND I THINK HISTORY SHOWS that democracy dies in the darkness.

4:38 It dies in silence.

4:40 But what we're seeing right now from Tennessee to Alabama,

4:45 Louisiana, is that people are rising up.

4:48 They are turning out to the town halls.

4:50 They are showing up in their capitals.

4:53 They are making clear that we are not going to stand by idly as lawmakers work

4:59 to strip black people of their voice

5:02 and strip them of the ability to shape democracy.

5:07 Right now, at the NAACP, we are busy and active in the courts.

5:12 We are determined to use every tool available,

5:14 even in the wake of the destruction dealt

5:18 to our nation's most sacred civil rights law, the Voting Rights Act.

5:22 We are determined to use every tool available to fight back.

5:25 A democracy is and nothing without representation.

5:32 I know that the NAACP has helped

5:35 to mobilize people in Alabama and Tennessee and elsewhere,

5:39 and we're seeing Obviously, you know, just the palpable pain and anger and I

5:44 think determination to not let this stand,

5:46 to not just let this go by in those states and others.

5:50 What do you think the mood is LIKE

5:53 IN THESE STATES WHERE YOU ARE HELPING PEOPLE FIGHT

5:56 AND WHERE YOU'VE BEEN HELPING PEOPLE ORGANIZE AND WHERE

5:58 PEOPLE ARE FEELING THE BRUNT OF THIS SO BLUNTLY.

6:03 PEOPLE ARE ANGRY, PEOPLE PEOPLE ARE FIRED UP,

6:07 THIS IS NOT THE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY THAT WE HAVE FOUGHT

6:12 FOR, THAT PEOPLE GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR, THAT PEOPLE BLED FOR, YOU KNOW,

6:19 IN THE SUPREME COURT RULING THAT PUT THE DEATH KNELL IN THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT,

6:24 YOU KNOW, JUSTICE ALITO AND IN THE SHELBY DECISION,

6:26 JUSTICE ROBERTS TALKED ABOUT THE South.

6:30 They, in their view, think that, you know,

6:34 we've reached a new day in America, especially in the South, they say.

6:39 But right now, the South is exhibit A for how

6:42 far we still need to go as a country.

6:45 It is not surprising or shocking that the South is the one

6:49 racing forward at lightning speed to strip black people of their voice,

6:55 and they're doing so without hesitation or shame.

6:58 The Voting Rights Act was always what nudged us in the right direction,

7:03 and that nudge was needed most greatly in the south, in the deep south states.

7:09 A former confederacy that is not even blinking as they shamelessly

7:15 strip away districts represented by honorable black public and white people.

7:35 We will turn out in the courts constitution in hand

7:40 standing up for the rights outlined in the reconstruction amendments.

7:44 But most importantly, this ELECTION SEASON,

7:48 YOU WILL SEE TURNOUT LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.

7:51 IT IS AT THE BALLOT BOX WHERE WE WILL USE

7:54 OUR VOICE IN THE MOST DETERMINED FASHION DURING THIS DARK SEASON.