Media top headlines January 11
In media news today, ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ gets worried Madison Cawthorn might ask to come on the show, an LA Times columnist says publicly mocking deaths of anti-vaxxers is ‘necessary’ to create ‘teachable moments,’ and ‘The View’ host Sunny Hostin says she no longer trusts CDC guidelines.
Co-host of ABC's "The View" Sunny Hostin lost it Tuesday as she railed against President Biden and moderate Democratic senators for not yet ensuring the passage of a federal voting law that would, according to her, protect Americans' access to the ballot box.
During a segment focused on Biden's Tuesday trip to Georgia for a speech about voting rights, Hostin lamented that he wasn't actually visiting West Virginia and Arizona and "putting pressure" on Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who have all expressed doubts over ending the Senate filibuster rule that would pave an easier way for federal voting legislation.
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"It seems to me, Whoopi, that this is very performative, the president and the vice president being in Georgia. You know, Georgia did its job. Georgia delivered," Hostin told co-host Whoopi Goldberg, referencing Biden winning Georgia n the 2020 presidential election, as well as Democrats winning both Senate seats in subsequent runoff elections last January.
She added that Georgia, amidst claims of voter suppression and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, turned out Black voters at historic levels and that they "did their job."
"It’s just unconscionable, in my view, that it’s a year later, and we don’t have voter rights legislation in place to protect the ballot. And it’s a year after January 6th, like you just mentioned, Whoopi. It’s a year after Republicans' continued attack on our democracy," Hostin said.
Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (Getty Images/Reuters)
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She claimed that there appeared to be a disconnect in that everyone often hears excuses that Biden is "just the president," and that he isn't in charge of the House or Senate and the "limits of the presidency" get mentioned whenever he isn't able to get something done. However, when he gets a win, such as with the infrastructure bill that passed in the fall last year, "the power of the presidency is on full display."
"I think the president and the vice president should be in West Virginia. I think the president and the vice president should be in Arizona putting pressure on Manchin and Sinema to deliver, and to get it done," Hostin said.
"And by the way, where is Mark Kelly, who is up for re-election in November? Where is he, Mr. Centrist? Because he now says that he hasn’t decided what he wants to do about the filibuster. He doesn’t know what he wants to do about voter legislation," she added, claiming Kelly’s position on the issue reminded her of the White moderates that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about in his letter from the Birmingham jail in the early 1960s.
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 13: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) walks to his car as he prepares to depart the U.S. Capitol following the conclusion of the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump on February 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)
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"He thinks we should wait for justice. I don’t think we need to wait for justice, and I fully understand why there are a lot of voter rights groups that are not going to meet Joe Biden in Georgia, because I don’t really think he should be there," Hostin said.
Hostin's anger at Biden and moderate Democrats comes amid a renewed push by the party to end the Senate filibuster rule and ensure the passage of a federal voting law to combat various state-level laws recently enacted by a number of Republican-led legislatures. Democrats claim the laws amount to voter suppression; however, Republicans maintain they ensure election integrity.
If the Senate filibuster rule were scrapped, Democrats could pass legislation with a simple majority vote, but Manchin, Sinema and Kelly, among other moderates, have expressed concern over the outright removal of the rule.