CNN's Chris Cuomo uses MLK to rip Democrats for not getting tough with GOP on voting rights — and botches US history in the process

CNN's Chris Cuomo was not happy with Democrats on Tuesday's "Prime Time" — and the left-wing host let it all hang out in a decidedly exasperated tone in regard to Senate Republicans squashing the left's beloved voting rights law.

What are the details?

"How about now, Democrats? Are you ready to play to win now? Have you had enough?" Cuomo growled as if he was looking to invite some left-wing politicians outside to settle things man to man.

"McConnell and Co. did exactly what we knew and you knew they would do," he continued. "They tanked even the suggestion to debate the need to curtail state efforts to send voting rights back 50 years. They won't even allow debate."

Cuomo added, "You're playing the game, and it is ugly and obvious."

Sadly — for Cuomo — he made the mistake of including a July 1963 video of Martin Luther King Jr. complaining about the Senate filibuster in relation to civil rights to drive home his point that Republicans are racists. Here's what King said:

"I think the tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting. They won't let the majority senators vote. And suddenly they wouldn't want the majority of people to vote because they know they do not represent the majority of American people. In fact, they represent, in their own states, a very small minority."

"Dr. King a half a century ago," Cuomo intoned dramatically and ruefully as the camera trained back upon him. "You know, we thought this battle was over, but it wasn't. The stakes are once again the same as then."

Earth to Chris

The glaring problem for Cuomo is that it was racist Democrats who fought against the passage of civil rights in King's day. NewsBusters' Nicholas Fondacaro took note of this glaring omission in Cuomo's self-righteous soliloquy.

"It was Democrats who waged a war to keep slaves, fought for segregation and Jim Crow, and refused to extend civil and voting rights to blacks," Fondacaro countered. "And let's not forget that MLK was a Republican."

Cuomo, however, kept pushing: "But here we are again today, talking about a minority party using the filibuster to allow them to keep suppressing the votes of minorities and others. It is an existential battle. This is not about left and right; it is about right and wrong." Wow.

Plenty of criticism to go around

But the ridiculousness isn't all on Cuomo. As we've also seen, Senate Democrats themselves aren't short on weak points of view — and one of Cuomo's esteemed colleagues pointed it out.

CNN host Jake Tapper on Tuesday called out Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut over his party's hypocrisy on the Senate filibuster.

Tapper asked Blumenthal why Democrats pushed the "For The People Act" knowing Republicans don't support it, and the senator replied by complaining about the filibuster, which he said he wants to abolish. That's when Tapper got him.

"Senator, haven't you voted in favor of filibustering Republican legislation, not allowing them to even proceed to a discussion, an amendment process and debate on a bill?" Tapper asked.

Blumenthal acknowledged the truth of the statement — but predictably argued that it was only Republicans who abused the filibuster.