Speak Georgia co-founder blasts DOJ lawsuit as 'extremely insulting' to Black voters

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Speak Georgia co-founder: DOJ lawsuit 'extremely insulting' to Black voters

Speak Georgia co-founder Janelle King blasted the Department of Justice's new lawsuit against Georgia's Election Integrity Act as "extremely insulting" to Black voters. 

In introducing the lawsuit on Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland argued that they are taking action because "the civil rights of Americans have been violated." The voting measure, in part, eliminates signature matching and requires an ID to vote, if an individual has one. But, as analysts have noted, it also offers several different options for voters to confirm their identity when requesting a ballot should they not have an ID. The Media Research Center released a video debunking a few other widely reported "myths" about the measure that have led critics to conclude it is inherently racist.

"But what this lawsuit does, is it really highlights how the Democratic Party has reduced the community, my community, the Black community down to nothing more than a political strategy," King argued on "Fox & Friends Weekend" Sunday.

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She added that the DOJ effort was "extremely insulting."

"It's basically saying that African-American people, and Black people in general, are not intelligent enough to be able to figure out,--- not just how to get voter ID, but how to locate your precinct in order to go vote," King continued.

King suggested she knew why the DOJ was targeting Georgia, however, calling her state the political "Ground Zero." As she noted, her husband, Kelvin King, is currently a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia.

"We have a huge U.S. Senate race - which my husband is running in - and a race where we are now, we're looking at potentially overturning the House as well as taking the majority in the Senate - so they're trying to do all they can."

When Gov. Brian Kemp, R., signed the voting measure in March., some critics, including President Biden, condemned it as "Jim Crow in the 21st Century." The president noted then that the DOJ was "taking a look" at the bill.

"This lawsuit is born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgia’s Election Integrity Act from the start," Kemp said of the DOJ's recent action. 

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His sentiments were shared by Georgia state Attorney General Chris Carr, who fired back at the DOJ's "political lawsuit."

"The Justice Department is wrong: factually, legally and constitutionally. Georgia's law clearly strengthens security, expands access and improves transparency in our elections. Merrick Garland said he was going to depoliticize the Justice Department yet files this blatantly political lawsuit," Carr recently told Fox News.

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley predicted that the DOJ's lawsuit may backfire, seeing as voter identification requirements are "extremely popular with voters."

Fox News' Kelly Laco contributed to this report.