Sinclair national correspondent likens DOJ protecting voting rights to Trump-era political interference in Russia probe
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From a Sinclair Broadcast Group national segment during the June 29, 2021, edition of KOKH's Fox 25 Late Edition
DAN SNYDER (CO-ANCHOR): President Biden has, on more than one occasion, promised he would not use the Justice Department for political purposes.
WENDY SUARES (CO-ANCHOR): However, that is exactly what Republicans claim that he's done in the intensified fight over new election laws. As political correspondent Scott Thuman shows us, it wouldn't be the first time a White House has been accused of interfering.
SCOTT THUMAN (SINCLAIR CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT): In a high-stakes showdown the Justice Department suing the state of Georgia to halt its new voting rules that the DOJ claims discriminate and suppress minorities.
(VIDEO BEGINS)
KRISTEN CLARKE (ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR CIVIL RIGHTS): Pushing more Black voters to in-person voting where they will be more likely than white voters to confront long lines.
(VIDEO ENDS)
THUMAN: But is it tricky territory for the Biden administration's top lawyers to weigh in as states across the country forge their own voting laws?
(VIDEO BEGINS)
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): The Biden administration is weaponizing the Department of Justice to serve their own partisan goals.
(VIDEO ENDS)
...
THUMAN: Some question the timing of the DOJ’s lawsuit, coming just days after Republicans blocked a Democrat-led effort to pass a voting rights bill here in the U.S. Senate and after President Biden vowed not to politicize the department. But the complaint's hardly new. Under President Trump, Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions were accused of undermining the Russia investigation and protecting Trump allies like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn. President Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder was skewered for DOJ spying on reporters whose stories used high-level sources.
(VIDEO BEGINS)
ILYA SHAPIRO (CATO INSTITUTE VICE PRESIDENT): Look, the Justice Department is a part of a political administration. It's not wholly independent from the president. It's not devoid of partisan politics and in the sense that legal policy priorities are different based on who's in charge.
(VIDEO ENDS)
THUMAN: So can the White House assure it didn't prompt the Georgia lawsuit?
(VIDEO BEGINS)
JEN PSAKI (WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY): It is a decision made by the Justice Department to move forward, but clearly a priority of the president to take action wherever we can in government to make it more accessible to vote.
(VIDEO ENDS)
THUMAN: The GOP calling it a thin disguise.