MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Nikema Williams
Interview
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Joining me now, Congresswoman Nikema Williams, Democrat from Georgia`s fifth Congressional District which contains Fulton County. She`s also the chair of the Georgia Democratic Party. Congresswoman, first maybe just a little bit of level-setting here on what the situation is. You got -- there`s a county board of elections and there`s someone who has the job of managing those elections at the county board appoints, Rick Barron. Is that right?
REP. NIKEMA WILLIAMS (D-GA): The county board of elections is comprised of Democrats and Republicans appointed by each county Democratic Party and Republican Party, and then you have staff that actually run the election system which are hired and come out of the Fulton County board of -- Board of Commissioner`s budget. So, it`s an independent body that is running the elections.
And these are career bureaucrats. These are people who have signed up to protect elections, to administer elections across the board.
HAYES: And so, one of those people has become a real target of ire of state Republicans, Rick Barron. And I want to just sort of give the argument here, the sort of -- the argument that actually Fulton County independent of the big lie and these accusations of fraud, which are ridiculous, has had problems managing elections, and there are real issues there that folks are unhappy with.
WILLIAMS: So, I live in Fulton County. I`ve voted in Fulton County for the past a lot of years, Chris. But I live in this county, and I`ve had my fair challenges. But what I know is there 159 counties in Georgia. And there`s a reason that the Republicans are only investigating one county. Out of all of the other counties that have problems on Election Day, no other county is being investigated and at risk of being taken over by the Republican power grab. And so, it`s only Fulton County.
They`re afraid to say what we all know is true out loud. And that is too many people that look like me showed up to vote in Fulton County. And so, now, they want to do something about that. What we also know is that when you look across the board and how we`ve made changes in Fulton County.
In June, we had our primary elections. And the Fulton County Board of Commissioners had an independent commission to come in and look at the -- what happened on Election Day. They came in, they made changes and got things together for the November election. They gave people more access to get the lines down. They made sure that they hired more coworkers. And you know, what the state did, they passed SB 202 to say that, oh, you can`t do mobile voting units. Oh, we`re not going to do all of these drop boxes to reduce the waiting in line. So, the Republicans are still to blame for all of this.
HAYES: I want to play one of the County Board of Commissioners in Fulton County sort of expressing his view that this is nothing more than a sheer power grab. Take a lesson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBB PITTS, CHAIRMAN, FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: They`re trying to set the stage for hostile takeover of our election system because they want a political win to appease believers of the big lie. I can`t let them get away with this in broad daylight without a fight. And I`m not going to do it. Because if they can do this us here in Fulton County, the largest in the state with a target on our back, they can do it to any of the other 158 counties in our great state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:45:16]
HAYES: So, that`s the chair of that -- of that county board. Now, my understanding is this -- because of this new law, the state board of elections which no longer includes Raffensperger, and is it just members of the state -- it`s just Republicans that that make up that board or they control the board?
WILLIAMS: There`s one Democrat, Chris, that I get to appoint as chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. So, just one lonely Democrat. And I know that our representative on the board, Sarah Draper will continue to fight this and make sure that she represents the true access to the ballot when she is as our voice.
But we have to continue to do more about this, which is why I`ve teamed up with my colleague, Representative Sarbanes here in Congress. And we have a bill to address the elections subversion. Just this week, or yesterday, Chris, I testified in the House Administration Committee on this bill so that we can make sure that we`re moving something forward on the national level to present -- to prevent these partisan power grabs, of course, of elections.
HAYES: So, just to be clear, I just want to make sure I understand this, you`ve got a county board -- the board of elections that is half Democrat, half Republican. It`s a bipartisan board the way that a lot of these boards work throughout the country. They`re going to come in and try the state Republicans passed this law signed by Kemp. Now, they control a state elections board, and they`re going to do a performance review and try to come in and appoint a hand-picked person by the Republican Party, essentially, to run the elections in Fulton County, to run all of it. That`s what`s happening.
WILLIAMS: That is what -- that`s what`s happening. And they say they want local control only when it`s not convenient for them. And then it becomes a partisan power grab. They -- it`s very clear, we played by their rules, we still won. And now, they are changing the rules. It`s the same thing that they did with every other piece of this bill that has been S.B. 202 that is now the law of the land in Georgia.
And that`s why we have to continue to fight on the federal level to get things like H.R.1 which is currently hung up in the Senate, but we have to get this legislation passed. So, that we can make sure that we are protecting the rights of vote for everyone, not just in Georgia. And we`ve seen what happened in Texas. I just met with Chairwoman Maxine Waters and the Texas delegation today to make sure that they knew that we`re standing with them, because this isn`t just about one state, it`s not just about Texas, this is about the country.
And we have to standardize our access to the ballot in this country. And that`s why I`m still fighting for the For the People Act with H.R.1.
HAYES: Congresswoman Nikema Williams of Georgia, thank you so much.
WILLIAMS: Thank you, Chris.
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