Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) downplayed the conservative backlash he is facing over the SAVE America Act, chalking it up to a “paid influencer ecosystem” that is amplifying calls for its passage.
Thune cast fresh doubt Monday that the Senate had the votes to pass the GOP voting bill, as conservative pundits and a chorus of social media personalities have been demanding for more than a month.
That pressure campaign has moved several Senate Republicans to support the bill, even if it means burning weeks of floor time under a talking filibuster. Yet, Thune told reporters there was enough resistance to that approach that he cannot “guarantee” an outcome even as he promises to hold a Senate vote.
“Having studied it, researched it pretty thoroughly, you have to show me how, in the end, it prevails and succeeds,” Thune said. “Because I think what has been promised out there is that it would actually, in the end, get an outcome, and I find it very hard to see that based on actual past experience.”
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Thune has previously called the outside push to pass the SAVE America Act, which requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote, part of a social media “echo chamber” and suggested that getting the legislation through the Senate is harder than activists claim.
Nearly all Senate Republicans have co-sponsored the bill, including Thune, but several have publicly announced opposition to a so-called talking filibuster, which sidesteps the 60-vote threshold on most legislation. As of now, Republicans control 53 votes in the Senate, and Democrats control 47.
“What I’ve said before is, you have to have unified support, not only in support of the ultimate goal, which is the SAVE America Act, but on the process to be able to defeat amendments that would undo the legislation in the first place,” Thune said on Monday. “And it is a – we can’t find a piece of legislation in history that’s been passed that way.”
Activists with large social media followings, most prominently Scott Presler, have been attempting to eat away at that resistance and have had some success. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), running in the toughest primary of his political career, became the latest Senate Republican to back skirting the 60-vote filibuster over the weekend.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is lending political weight to that campaign and on Sunday praised Presler, vowing not to sign any bill into law until the SAVE America Act reaches his desk. The White House later clarified that he will make one exception – funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Thune addressed that announcement on Monday, expressing optimism that Trump would make further exceptions if the bills were important enough. He is most focused on getting a housing bill through Congress and noted that Senate Republicans worked “closely” with the White House on it.
“I know he’s passionate about the SAVE AMERICA Act, and I think that his statement was an expression of that,” Thune said. “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’ll find his way to sign it.”
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Trump has also, in recent days, asked the House, which passed the SAVE America Act in February, to add provisions on mail ballots and transgender rights.
Asked about the add-ons, Thune said it “would probably make sense” for the House to send another version of the bill to the Senate.