'Do something!' Rep. Stacey Plaskett furious as she's told she can't vote for speaker
Matthew Chapman
January 3, 2025
RAW STORY
Stacey Plaskett, congresswoman from the Virgin Islands. (Screengrab via C-SPAN)
A congresswoman from the Virgin Islands rose in the House during the speakership vote on Mike Johnson (R-LA) to protest the more than a century-long refusal of the House to give a vote on the floor to elected officials from U.S. territories.
"I note that the names of representatives from American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia were not called, representing, collectively, 4 million Americans," said Stacey Plaskett to broad applause from the Democratic side of the chamber. "Mr. Speaker, collectively, the largest per capita of veterans in this country."
"Does the gentlelady have a problem?" the presiding member asked.
"I asked why they were not called," said Plaskett. "I asked why they were not called from the parliamentarian, please."
"Delegates-elect and the resident commissioner-elect are not qualified to vote," came the response. "Representatives-elect are the only individuals qualified to vote in the election of the speaker. As provided in Section 36 of the House rules and manual, the speaker is elected by a majority of the members-elect voting by surname."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker," said Plaskett. "This body and this nation has a territory and a colonies problem. What was supposed to be temporary has now, effectively, become permanent. We must do something about this."
Ultimately, Johnson was elected speaker on the second ballot, with two rebellious Republicans flipping their votes at the urging of President-elect Donald Trump. Territorial delegates — who may have proved decisive had they been allowed to vote due to the historically narrow GOP House majority — were not given a say.
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Stacey Plaskett, congresswoman from the Virgin Islands. (Screengrab via C-SPAN)
A congresswoman from the Virgin Islands rose in the House during the speakership vote on Mike Johnson (R-LA) to protest the more than a century-long refusal of the House to give a vote on the floor to elected officials from U.S. territories.
"I note that the names of representatives from American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia were not called, representing, collectively, 4 million Americans," said Stacey Plaskett to broad applause from the Democratic side of the chamber. "Mr. Speaker, collectively, the largest per capita of veterans in this country."
"Does the gentlelady have a problem?" the presiding member asked.
"I asked why they were not called," said Plaskett. "I asked why they were not called from the parliamentarian, please."
"Delegates-elect and the resident commissioner-elect are not qualified to vote," came the response. "Representatives-elect are the only individuals qualified to vote in the election of the speaker. As provided in Section 36 of the House rules and manual, the speaker is elected by a majority of the members-elect voting by surname."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker," said Plaskett. "This body and this nation has a territory and a colonies problem. What was supposed to be temporary has now, effectively, become permanent. We must do something about this."
Ultimately, Johnson was elected speaker on the second ballot, with two rebellious Republicans flipping their votes at the urging of President-elect Donald Trump. Territorial delegates — who may have proved decisive had they been allowed to vote due to the historically narrow GOP House majority — were not given a say.
Watch the video below or at the link here.
'Racism': Rep. Stacey Plaskett unloads on MSNBC after hearing she can't vote for speaker
Matthew Chapman
January 3, 2025
RAW STORY
Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) and MSNBC host Joy Reid. (Screengrab via MSNBC)
Stacey Plaskett, a Democratic congresswoman from the Virgin Islands, is sent to Congress as a territorial representative — but she has no right to vote in the election for speaker of the House, a fact she stood up and reminded the nation of during the roll call to confirm Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Friday.
Speaking to MSNBC's Joy Reid on Friday evening, Plaskett more starkly laid out the crisis of disenfranchisement facing citizens of the U.S. territories.
"The fact that I could not vote for speaker, and my children were there with me, Virgin Islanders were watching me and not hearing my name ... and to know that we are people who represent some, the largest Black and per capita of veterans, and still cannot vote for our commander-in-chief and do not have a vote for speaker. I just couldn't sit silent," Plaskett told Reid.
Many states used to be territories but were eventually given statehood, she noted.
"But, in the cases that are called the Insular Cases at the turn of the 20th century, by the same justice that wrote Plessy v. Ferguson, he stated the people who live in the territories are savage aliens who cannot understand Anglo-Saxon principles of law, and therefore should not be given the full rights of American citizenship. Now, mind you, we have signed ourselves up to be part of the draft, and in fact, the people of the island that I live on, that my family is from, St. Criox, sent to this nation, one of the children that we reared, Alexander Hamilton, to actually write the Constitution. And then to turn around and say we can not understand principles of rule of law? It is just absolutely racism, and it's got to stop."
"Yeah, I mean we learned, I think, a lot of people did not understand," replied Reid. "People from Puerto Rico get asked for their passports by TSA agents sometimes ... they cannot vote for the president unless they come physically to the mainland. It is treating the territories as colonies."
"You can move to Brussels, you can move to Paris, you can move to the Congo, and just get an absentee ballot and vote for president," agreed Plaskett. "But if you, Joy Reid, or anyone in your family or anyone else, move to a U.S. territory or resides there, then you give up your right to vote for president. It's got to end."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
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