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Conservatives rallied around President Donald Trump online Thursday after he doubled down on calls for lawmakers to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, citing alarming election integrity vulnerabilities he said his administration had discovered.
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., wrote on social media.
“We are going to lose our country if we don’t pass the dadgum SAVE America Act. Call your senator and tell them to save our great nation.”
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Trump promised a series of disclosures on the discovered weaknesses.
“Tonight, I’m announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure,” Trump said.
In particular, the president said those new documents would focus on a handful of key allegations, including foreign data theft carried out by China, that members of the U.S. government had known about election vulnerabilities, that Americans had been misled for years about those weaknesses and new evidence of “election fraud.”
To address them, Trump called on lawmakers to pass the SAVE Act — a bill that, among other provisions, would require proof of citizenship to participate in federal elections.
“I ask you to pick up your phone tomorrow, call your representatives in the House and Senate, and demand that they pass the Save America Act without delay. Together, we will restore faith and confidence in our country, and we will be bigger, better and stronger than ever before,” Trump said.
Almost immediately, his calls were echoed by Republican lawmakers online.
“It is more important than ever to crush foreign election interference. It is more important than ever to pass the SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in a post to X.
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Hans Von Spakovsky, an election expert with Advancing American Freedom, a conservative think tank, agreed.
“The president is absolutely correct that the SAVE Act needs to be passed to implement universal voter ID and proof of citizenship,” Spakovsky said.
“He is also correct that the only reason an elected official would oppose this is because that official wants to make it easy to cheat and ensure that aliens who register and vote are not caught,” Spakovsky added.
The legislation, which has passed the House of Representatives multiple times, has been stopped by Democratic opposition in the Senate, where Republicans need at least 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.
Republicans hold just 53 seats in the chamber.
Despite Trump’s calls to remove the filibuster, a part of Senate procedure, enough Republicans have expressed support to keep it in place, arguing that it forces aat least some level of bipartisan cooperation over the most substantive pieces of legislation. But on Thursday, more voices demanded the Senate revisit the rule.
“The Senate needs to end the zombie filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act. Election integrity is far more important than the dying institutional ‘norms’ of the Senate,” Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, wrote on Xshortly after Trump’s speech.
Democrats, who claimthe bill would add too many hurdles for minorities and other demographics to participate in elections, bashed Trump’s calls on Thursday, including former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The SAVE Act is voter suppression. It is part of a larger agenda of conservatives trying to steal power from the people,” Harris said in a post to social media.
“He wants you to lose confidence in our electoral system, so you stay home this November. He knows how discontent the American people are, and he wants to make sure that you do not vote,” she added.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., echoed Harris’ calls.
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“Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. And now he’s trying to rig this year’s election with the SAVE America Act to make it harder to vote for millions of women, veterans, rural folks, & voters of color,” Pressley said in a post of her own.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., also joined in the chorus of Democratic condemnations.
“After listening to the president’s rambling address, I want him to know that the SAVE America Act is going NOWHERE in the Senate. It belongs in the trash with the rest of Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories. America, use your vote and your voice to save our democracy,” Murray said in a post to X.
It’s unclear when the Senate might reconsider the SAVE Act.
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