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Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith slammed for 'joking' about voter suppression on college campuses
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is under fire for joking that laws that "make it just a little more difficult" for college students to vote are "a great idea."
Scallan claimed that Hyde-Smith's comments were in response to a question about whether she would support opening polling places on college campuses and that she said campus polling places were "a great idea," not voter suppression.
"The senator absolutely is not a racist and does not support voter suppression," she added.
Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to replace retiring Sen. Thad Cochran last April, is facing a black Democrat, Mike Espy, who served as agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration, in a Nov. 27 runoff election after both candidates received about 41 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 race.
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Espy's campaign responded that voting rights "are not a laughing matter."
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Hyde-Smith's comments drew significant criticism from progressives and online commentators, who argued that Mississippi's dark and violent history of disenfranchising black citizens should disqualify any politician from making light of voter suppression.
This comes just days after Hyde-Smith was widely criticized for joking, in a video that went viral, that if she were invited to a public hanging, she'd "be on the front row." The senator refused to clarify or apologize for the comment.
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