Hey, everybody. Great show today, you know, for a change, because I have two friends of the podcast, Maria Theresa Kumar, founder and president of Voto Latino, who did my very first podcast, and Mark Elias, a lead Democratic election lawyer, who we check in with

from time to time talk about the obstacles of voting that Republicans put up to make it harder

for certain people to vote. First, I want to talk about this week's Supreme Court hearings

with Judge Amy Comey Barrett. I'm recording this before they start,

but I got to just tell you, I am really pissed off about the hypocrisy of Republicans.

You'll remember that I was in the Senate when Justice Scalia died, and soon after President Obama

nominated Merrick Garland to the court. And the Republicans would not take him up. They would not meet

with him. They would not give him hearings. And you remember why that was because it was

Justice Scalia died during an election year,

an election year died in February.

You know, when I was in high school, I learned about the three-fifths compromise made at

the Constitutional Convention for purposes of representation in the United States House

Representatives, each slave in the slave states was to be counted as three-fifths of a person. Some

of my classmates were outraged. How dare slaves be considered three-fifths of a human being?

No, no, I would argue. They were not considered three-fifths human beings. They really

weren't considered human beings at all, they were slaves.

They were enslaved to people.

They were considered chattel.

They were bought and sold at slave markets.

Children were separated from their parents,

or more likely just their mothers

who had been routinely raped by their

...