Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, tore into Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban and basketball executive Jerry West during a congressional hearing on Thursday for advocating Democratic voting legislation, Breitbart reported.
Earlier in the week, Saban, West, and three other prominent sports figures wrote a letter to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., pressuring him to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and Freedom Vote Act.
The bills seek to broaden what constitutes voter identification, make Election Day a federal holiday, and restrict southern states’ ability to change election laws, according to NPR.
Roy cited the letter they sent to Manchin during the House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing and questioned whether the five sports figures actually read the bills, per Breitbart.
"No doubt these famed election law experts spent the weekend reading the federal legislation, which they were lobbying," the congressman said sarcastically. "Cause I mean, I got the 700-page bill at 11:30 last Thursday night before voting on it on Friday…I assume they read it thoroughly over the weekend. As my staff stayed up in the middle of the night doing to actually see what was in the bill."
The Texas congressman also highlighted the regional bias of the Democrat voting legislation, specifically in targeting the post-Civil Rights American South.
"You don’t hear them complaining about Delaware," Roy said. You don’t see the Biden administration bringing Delaware to court. You don’t see the Biden/Garland Department of Justice suing Maryland. … Why are they doing this? Because they have to claim voting rights were being violated to try to save themselves politically."
"The purpose [of the bills] is to delegitimize elections ahead of the game and to unintentionally divide the country," he added. The Democrats have "spent four years on Russian collusion. Now they’re setting up the narrative for 2022, to use race-baiting to create a toxic environment of distrust to delegitimize a possible GOP majority."