On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) responded to Republicans arguing that Democratic states have gerrymandered by saying that’s just another way of “saying that they are drawing districts with partisan intent because they can’t win an election on their agenda, and they know that they have to have legislators choose their voters and they have to rig the construction of congressional districts.”
Co-host Joe Mathieu played video of Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) saying, “California has already done this, New York has already done this, Illinois has already done this, Massachusetts, already done this, Maryland, already done this. What was frustrating to Democrats is that Republicans are now doing this. But the fact is that you can have a president who, if he does not win the midterms, will not be able to complete his agenda to the American people that they all supported either two years ago, and, on top of that, what my Democrat[ic] colleagues promised is that they are going to defund ICE and they’re going to spend the last two years of his presidency on impeachment.”
Mathieu then asked, “This rhetoric gets to be beyond even the — I can’t even cut the — what is your reaction to that, Congresswoman? Why is this different in Texas?”
Wasserman Schultz responded, “Joe, that’s a long way of her saying that they are drawing districts with partisan intent because they can’t win an election on their agenda, and they know that they have to have legislators choose their voters and they have to rig the construction of congressional districts. By the way, the congressional redistricting took place across the country in the states she named, California, Illinois, other states, at the regular decennial Census. They are trying to ram through new congressional districts, partisan districts, and pick up seats, because they know when voters go to the polls next November, there’s a freight train of opposition to their agenda that will run over them. And, in Florida, particularly, it is directly, explicitly unconstitutional. I have colleagues in Florida who have specifically, publicly stated that the reason that we needed to change congressional district lines in Florida is so that they elect more Republicans and more conservatives. That’s unconstitutional, and it’s very transparent. And if and when they do it, it’ll go through the judicial process, and, hopefully, we’ll be able to make sure those are overturned.”
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