
Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber arrested as pressure mounts to call out Manchin over filibuster
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US Capitol Police said Jackson and Barber were among 21 people arrested on Wednesday near the US Supreme Court building for crowding and obstructing. Video footage shows the faith leaders were outside the Hart Senate Building at the time of their detention.
“When you start rolling back voter registration, rolling back early voting, undermining mail in balloting, putting limits on people even being able to get water, doing racist gerrymandering, class-based gerrymandering, you hurt Black people, you hurt White people, you hurt Asians, Natives, Latinos, young people and the disabled,” Barber told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
The faith leaders are part of several high-profile figures and organizations demanding that lawmakers at the state and federal halt efforts to enact bills that restrict voting access and support the For the People Act, a signature voting and election bill that Democrats had pitched to counter state-level efforts.
Video footage captured by CNN shows the group was later escorted to the sidewalk by officers.
This is not the first time Barber led a protest against the filibuster. Last week, Barber and dozens of people marched to Manchin’s office in West Virginia.
“They’re tired of Manchin supporting the filibuster and not supporting them. Talking about bipartisanship rather than talking about the needs of West Virginia,” Barber told CNN earlier this month about Manchin’s constituents.
Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of Martin Luther King Jr., will lead the march with his family’s organization the Drum Major Institute along with March On, Service Employees International Union and the National Action Network.
“It’s time for all Americans to come together and join this non-violent, non-partisan movement in the spirit of Dr. King and the values he pushed this nation to uphold,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, who heads the National Action Network. “I’m proud to be a part of the March On for Voting Rights because there is no democratic right more sacred than the right to vote, and it is under threat across America. We must fight to protect it.”
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