2020: Sanders Campaign Will 'Double Down' on Prisoner Voting, Despite Backlash
Presidential hopeful has no intention of soft pedaling proposal
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Despite the backlash of Sen. Bernie Sanders' proposed policy of allowing prisoners to vote, the 2020 hopeful still believes it will get him votes, even though some Democrats are warning of the proposal.
The socialist presidential candidate’s idea of allowing convicted terrorists and murderers should receive the franchise has even raised eyebrows from prominent Democrats like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who warned the proposal is unsound.
But the Sanders campaign has no intention of reversing the stand and will resume advocating prisoner voting, according to the senior campaign staffer reportedly told NBC.
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Brewster appeared on MSNBC with Ali Velshi and remarked how Sanders’ announcement that the Boston Marathon bomber deserved to vote was playing with Democratic voters.
“Yes, I did get to speak to some voters, but I do want to say Bernie Sanders just wrapped up an event and he is not backing down from the issue at all,” Brewster said.
“I spoke a to senior campaign official who told me this is something the campaign plans to lean directly into."
"They see this as an opportunity to educate people on the Reconstruction era of restrictions on felons’ ability to vote.”
“This is something that this official told me that really is going to expand on with hard substantive policy as they go to South Carolina,” Brewster added.
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Sanders linked prisoner voting with “cowardly Republican governors” who are allegedly attempting trying to deny voting rights.
“To answer your question, as it happens in my own state of Vermont, from the very first days of our state’s history, what our Constitution says is that everybody can vote,” Sanders said.
“If somebody commits a serious crime, sexual assault, murder, they’re going to be punished. They may be in jail for ten years, 20 years, 50 years, their whole lives."
"That’s what happens when you commit a serious crime, but I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti argued for Sander's prison voting proposal.
"What's the reason NOT to let incarcerated people vote? Shouldn't the people most affected by unjust laws have some say in electing people to change them?" Chakrabarti asked on Wednesday.
