Earlier in the day, members of the Congressional Black Caucus stood outside of the Senate and addressed reporters, making a show of their support for the voting rights legislation. 

One of the things forgotten in this bill is the Disclose Act, which would help throw a wrench into dark money groups’ ability to stay in the shadows and not have to disclose their huge money donations that allow $400 million to magically appear in support of packing the Supreme Court with right-wing mediocrities. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse ended his speech with two examples of how nefarious and undemocratic the dark money river that runs behind voter-suppression laws is, among other things.

Then Sen. Cory Booker stepped up to respond to the mealy-mouthed history lesson (sans context and answers) speech that Republican Sen. Tim Scott preceded the New Jersey senator’s remarks with. Booker, justifiably exasperated, pointed out the actual facts of the matter and the color lines being drawn on elections maps by GOP-controlled state legislatures: “Don’t lecture me about Jim Crow! I know this is not 1965. That’s what makes me so outraged. It’s 2022, and they’re blatantly removing more polling places from the counties where Black and Latinos are overrepresented. I’m not making that up. That is a fact.”

Then Sen. Joe Manchin got up and did this:

What he said, besides being historically inaccurate, was a pathetic attempt by a corrupt dirtbag millionaire whose cynicism knows no bounds at this point, in the twilight of his career. The responses to this are all that’s worthwhile to report.

Then, after Republicans like Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma tried to make a voting rights point by talking about how much people liked the late Betty White, Sen. Tom Cotton got up and belched out his general crap about how Democrats want to turn your children into trans-Muslim Chinese communists. He also promoted the lie that no one has ever changed the rules in the Senate to pass bills around the filibuster.

This led Sen. Jeff Merkley to give Sen. Tom Cotton a history lesson, one that includes the very recent Senate history that gave us three Supreme Court justices that represent a minority view of morality and justice, as well as the wildly unpopular Republican tax break for the rich.

Also responding to Sen. Cotton’s attempt at a ‘gotcha’ was New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, who gave arguably the best and most impassioned speech on the floor. Pointing out that she never thought the Republican Party, after Jan. 6, would go as far down the fascism hole as it has, she finished her speech by laying it all on the line: “The Republican Party and the Democratic Party must unite for freedom. And to stand for an accountable democracy because without that, the rules of this body do not matter.”