Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer faced backlash on Thursday after he doubled down on comparing voter ID legislation to “Jim Crow” policies.
Schumer has pushed back multiple times on a Republican plan to add the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require states to obtain proof of citizenship in person when people register to vote and remove noncitizens from voter rolls, to the spending package being debated in Congress.
“So, Leader Schumer, this talk about election security has revived discussions of the SAVE Act, which you have said you oppose,” MS NOW host Jonathan Lemire said on “Morning Joe.”
“Proponents of it say that it’s — you know, to have ID you have to prove U.S. citizenship to be able to vote, though some of the claims they make, to be clear, are overstated. We know there’s not widespread election fraud. But polling does suggest — there’s a new Pew Research poll — that 95% of Republicans, but also 71% of Democrats, like this idea,” Lemire added. “So, why do you not?”
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“It’s Jim Crow 2.0, and I called it Jim Crow 2.0, and the right-wing went nuts all over the internet,” Schumer replied. “That’s because they know it’s true. What they’re trying to do here is the same thing that was done in the South for decades, to prevent people of color from voting.”
He then went on to list a series of circumstances that appeared to have nothing to do with race.
“For instance, if you change — you’re a woman who got married and changed your last name, you won’t be able to show ID, and you’ll be discriminated against. If you can’t find a birth certificate, or a proper ID, you’ll be discriminated against. This is vicious and nasty. And I said to our Republican colleagues, it will not pass the Senate. You will not get a single Democratic vote in the Senate. We’re not reviving Jim Crow all over the country. And when the American people hear what exactly it is doing, and what its intent is doing, they’re going to be against it as well.”
On Thursday, sports commentator and podcaster Stephen A. Smith brought up the controversy as he spoke to Bill Maher on his podcast.
“Schumer called what Trump’s trying to do with the elections. He called it Jim Crow 2.0, and what I guarded against. I said, you know, I’ve taken heat from the Democratic Party from time to time. You certainly have, you know, on numerous occasions,” Smith said. “And I said don’t get Trump-ish. Don’t engage in that kind of hyperbole because we’re living in the year 2026. And when you start bringing up Jim Crow 2.0, you’re trying to hearken back to a time that most people recognize, ‘No, we’re not living in those times right now.’”
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Smith continued, “Of course, we’ve got our troubles, but we’re not doing. Don’t do that because that’s playing right into Trump’s hands.”
“But yes, you’re right. It’s foolish to make it about that. And it’s also foolish because Biden used that exact phrase about voting in Georgia,” Maher said. “And then they did polling after that next election came up, and even the Black folks said we had no problem voting. So right, you know, like you say, don’t engage in the kind of hyperbole that’s just going to bite you in the a–.”
One election expert criticized Schumer’s comments.
“Chuck Schumer sounds like a broken record,” Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News Digital. “When Georgia passed a new voting law in 2021, Schumer labeled it ‘Jim Crow’ even though the state went on to see explosive turnout in 2022.”
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Snead pointed to a University of Georgia poll after the 2022 election finding that 0% of Black respondents had a poor experience voting.
“Now, Schumer is smearing the SAVE Act the same way because he has no legitimate excuse for opposing a law that makes sure only American citizens are voting — which more than 80% of Americans support. Schumer’s smears were false then, and they are false now,” Snead continued. “Schumer and the Democrats keep trying to rig the rules of our elections by pushing failed, California-style election laws that invite chaos and fraud. That’s not what Americans want.”
