Listen to this article here

Twitter is dragging Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) for posting a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote. This of course comes on the eve Democrat senators are planning to propose a Senate floor debate on The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Notably, Dr. King’s children and many in the African-American community support the passage of both voter protection bills.

Like many of his other Republican colleagues, Sen. Lankford is also against changing filibuster rules that would allow bills to pass with 51 votes as opposed to the existing 60 vote rule. And Senate Democrats need 50 votes plus 10 republican votes to advance both bills.

Currently, there is no Republican buy-in to pass both voting reform bills purposed by the Senate Democrats.

Last year, a chorus of voices calling for Sen. Lankford’s resignation from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Commission followed after he initially planned to contest the 2020 US Presidential election of then, President-elect, Joe Biden. Black Americans accused the Senator of attempting to disenfranchise millions of voters in historically Black and Brown communities.

The U.S. Capitol was attacked during Lankford’s senator floor speech.

The Republican Senator tweeted Dr. King’s “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” quote, playing it safe and not mentioning King’s views against voter suppression.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." – Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
#MLKDay2022 pic.twitter.com/7nWxzQLKoh

— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) January 17, 2022

The Tweets

Journalist, activist Roland Martin made it clear that politicians would be dragged for showboating MLK quotes while showing anti-Black behavior such as voter suppression.

WARNING to ANY company quoting the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend: if you have no Black board members, no Black senior execs, don't support Black-owned media or other Black businesses, we are gonna drag your ass on social media for pimping the legacy of MLK.

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) January 16, 2022

And that’s what’s happening to Sen. Lankford today.

One reply was that Sen. Lankford didn’t understand the meaning of Dr. King’s quote because if he did, he would support voting rights.

Another accused the senator of insulting the legacy of Dr. King, tweeting “[He was] the personification of all that MLK spent his life fighting against.”

Sen. Jim Inhofe and Rep. Kevin Hern also tweeted MLK posts, while simultaneously opposing both voter protection reform bills.