Randi Weingarten
Role at the time: President of the American Federation of Teachers, a plaintiff in the lawsuit
Statement summary
AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a Legal Defense Fund release announcing the September 18 lawsuit that deploying federal agents to strike fear into voters at polling places is a tactic out of the authoritarian playbook. She called it intimidation that has no place in a true democracy and said citizens need to exercise their right to vote without "running the gauntlet of an armed, masked militia."
“Deploying federal agents to strike the fear of god into voters at polling places is a tactic straight out of the authoritarian playbook It’s intimidation pure and simple and has no place in a true democracy. No matter your politics, American citizens need to be able to exercise their basic democratic right without running the gauntlet of an armed, masked militia”
Announcement by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, co-counsel for the plaintiffs, of the suit by nine organizations. It lists the plaintiffs and their counsel and quotes lawyers and plaintiff leaders, including NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The case records responses to the administration's stated or threatened use of ICE and other armed federal agents at or near polling places. Weingarten called deploying federal agents to strike fear into voters at polling places a tactic from the authoritarian playbook and intimidation with no place in a true democracy, and said citizens need to be able to vote without running the gauntlet of an armed, masked militia. She set no condition, so we labeled it Condemned.