The Cost of Voter Suppression

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Jen Psaki: The Republican Party won another very close election, just as they had lost one in 1960. In 1968, the Republican candidate for president was once again Richard Nixon. He told a reporter that he was confident in his chances of winning this time around because, quote, we have Operation Eagle Eye watching this time. And in 1968, they won. So it comes full circle. Having lost a close one eight years ago and having won a close one this year, I can say this. Winning is a lot more fun.

Republicans claim the election was stolen. They use those claims to justify suppressing people’s right to vote. All of it happening amid a national reckoning on race. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson tell the story of a time uncannily similar to our own – in the early 1960s. And how it’s both a parallel to our present moment and the origin of conflicts playing out today.

Featuring Guests:

Rick Perlstein, historian, author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus

Sherrilyn Ifill, Vernon Jordan Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University and former President and Director-Counsel of LDF.

Jim Brosnahan, lawyer and author of Justice At Trial: Courtroom Battles and Groundbreaking Cases