Something is broken in Washington — and it's not just the usual dysfunction. A popular, bipartisan election integrity bill with overwhelming public support has already passed the House and has the votes to pass in the Senate, but Democrats are abusing the filibuster to prevent it from getting a vote. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune won’t do anything about this obstruction.
President Trump made his position crystal clear on Sunday, posting on Truth Social that he would refuse to sign any legislation until the SAVE America Act reached his desk. "It must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed."
The SAVE America Act is straightforward: proof of citizenship for federal voter registration, photo ID at the polls, and tighter restrictions on mail-in ballots. In addition to having the votes to pass, multiple polls have found it is extremely popular, with bipartisan support.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune walked out of the weekly Republican policy lunch and promptly threw cold water on the whole effort to secure our elections. Asked whether he'd change the filibuster rules to get the bill through, Thune's answer was blunt: "Yeah, that's not going to happen." When pressed on the president's demand, he acknowledged Trump was "clearly very interested" in the bill but added, "I can't guarantee an outcome. I can't guarantee a result."
That's a remarkable thing for a majority leader to say. He's the one controlling the floor schedule. He's the one who could force Democrats to stand up for hours defending their opposition to basic election integrity. Instead, Thune warned that a talking filibuster could drag on for months. "If the result is only achieved by nuking the legislative filibuster, we don't have the votes to do that," Thune said, "and so that's just not a realistic option."
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Look, we know Democrats won’t support it, but we have the votes to pass it, and we should do something about it. We know that when Democrats regain unified control of Washington again, they’ll nuke the filibuster immediately and not even blink an eye. And when they do, they’ll ram through the Freedom to Vote Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the For the People Act. Taken together, those bills would mandate universal mail-in voting, allow ballots to be accepted long after Election Day, implement automatic voter registration, allow felons to vote, and abolish the Electoral College. That’s codifying a system designed for fraud, to keep them in power permanently.
Thune knows this. Every Republican senator knows this. Yet the majority leader's answer is to talk about "finite resources" and hope Trump comes around. "I know he is passionate about the SAVE America Act," Thune said Monday, "but I hope at the end of the day that if we can move things across the floor here and actually put legislation on his desk, that he will find a way to sign it."
That's wishful thinking if I’ve ever heard it.
The SAVE America Act is overwhelmingly popular. The only thing standing in the way of election integrity is Senate Democrats and John Thune.
