GOP BETRAYS Trump And The American People SABOTAGING The SAVE ACT
Tim Pool analyzes the GOP's betrayal of the SAVE Act, which demands documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration. Despite 85% national support, Senate Majority Leader John Thune refuses to nuke the filibuster, allowing Democrats to block the bill despite Trump's ultimatum to sign nothing else. Pool argues Democrats oppose the measure not due to fraud concerns, as non-citizen voting is rare, but because universal mail-in voting mathematically favors dense urban Democratic strongholds over rural Republican areas, ultimately threatening national survival and midterm prospects. [Automatically generated summary]
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This is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which basically means federally you will need an ID to vote.
There's some other provisions in there that we'll go through, but Democrats favor it.
Republicans favor it.
And independent voters favor it.
So the question is, with tremendous national support for voter ID, why is the bill dead?
And this has led many people to say, my friends, Congress is fake and it's really demoralizing.
Because I'll stress this again, the polls, even CNN is pointing out that the Democrat voter base wants there to be ID requirements.
But for some reason, Democrat politicians are obstructing this.
Now, there is a way to get through this bill.
And it has to do with nuking the filibuster.
All right, I'll give you the quick version of the filibuster.
Basically, it means to like stop a thing, right?
The filibuster used to be, I will stand up and I will speak endlessly until everybody just goes home and the bill never gets passed.
And the talking filibuster was widely respected to a certain degree because you had to do some work to try and put a stop to this bill you didn't want passed.
Well, because everybody got tired of these massive filibusters, the Senate basically said, we're going to do a new rule.
Instead of a talking filibuster, we're going to have a 60-vote threshold filibuster, meaning anybody can just trigger it and then you need 60 votes to pass the bill.
That way, only the bills we really want through will make it through.
And anything that's controversial probably won't.
The only problem is now that we have tremendous support for the SAVE Act, it's still not getting support from Democrats.
The Republicans in control of the Senate have the opportunity to say, we're changing the rules, and now there's no filibuster.
A simple majority, 51 votes, and this bill passes.
But they're not doing it.
They've shifted the conversation to, instead of nuking the filibuster, let's force a talking filibuster.
Unfortunately, even with a talking filibuster, Republicans are saying, we just don't have the votes.
We can't get this done.
Now, Trump is going nuclear.
He is saying, if we do this, pass the SAVE Act, we win the midterms.
But the Republicans just don't care.
Well, probably because it's all one big happy family tree, son.
We call it the Uniparty.
And Trump ain't a part of that party.
So John Thune, who's supposed to be the one to make this happen, says, you guys are wrong.
We just don't have the math.
We don't have the support for this bill, even with Republicans.
Well, Donald Trump has issued a threat.
He is saying, if you do not bring this bill to my desk, I will sign nothing else.
And that's a nuclear strike all the same.
Donald Trump's telling the Republicans, you ain't getting nothing done.
I will sign nothing unless we get this.
And he's right.
This is something the American people really want.
Everyone agrees.
And hey, don't just trust me on this.
I will show you the CNN segment breaking down.
This is one of the most popular bills ever presented.
So I'm going to stress this once again to all of you.
We are looking at right now one of the most popular bills ever to be entered into Congress in our modern history.
Answer me this, please.
I implore you.
Liberals, conservatives, I largely know what you're thinking, but liberals, independents, conservatives, comment below and tell me why it is you think Democrats, despite their base wanting this bill, are blocking it.
But let's jump into where we are currently at with this law.
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Well, here's the first story.
And I'll run through some headlines real quick to give you a general understanding before we get into the bulk of the SAVE Act.
Toon Thune, whatever you pronounce his name, John Thune quashes Trump push to reform the filibuster for the SAVE Act, basically saying it's not going to happen.
And people are pissed.
Now, there's a lot of liberal pundits that are like, but this is the right thing to do because voter ID is racist.
But when you look at the core voter base, everyone, and boy, I mean everyone, supports this bill.
To be fair, it's 71% of Democrats, but Independents and Republicans are basically at 90%.
So when you look at the raw numbers, it's like 85% of this country are in favor of this.
Now, first, before I show you all the core details, Trump's arguments, and what the counters are, let me explain to you what the SAVE Act actually is.
From Grok.
The SAVE Act, Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, sometimes referred to as the Save America Act in later versions, is a piece of U.S. legislation aimed at election integrity, particularly regarding citizenship requirements for voting in federal elections.
Its primary purpose is to ensure that only U.S. citizens can register to vote by requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when someone applies to register or update their registration for federal elections.
It amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to impose this mandate on states.
It would require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration in federal elections.
States cannot accept or process a registration application without proof presented at the time of application.
This would be a passport, a real ID, a birth certificate, military ID, naturalization certificate, or similar documents, other limited options like certain tribal or American Indian cards.
States must provide an alternative process for applicants who lack the listed documents to submit other evidence as citizenship.
I want to stress this point.
This has always been a principal reason why this is a popular bill.
When they argue that it means women won't be able to vote and black people won't be able to vote, none of that is true.
They actually provide alternative means to make sure if you are a citizen, but you lack the ability to prove like, you know, an idea or something, they're going to make it.
It may be a little difficult, but we're going to get you there.
We want election integrity.
I think that's a fair thing for any country to ask for.
Some versions, like 2026, add or modify elements such as requiring a photo ID to vote in person, directing states to submit voter rolls to DHS, ongoing voter roll maintenance to remove non-citizens.
Again, I want to stress this.
This is about registration.
They are making it seem like when you show up to the polling station to vote, they're going to say, please show me your ID.
They're saying when you register, which means many states are still going to allow people to walk into a voting booth without proving who they are.
So I stress this.
This is not even the most egregious of bills that they could present.
Grok, however, gives us the debate, saying, supporters argue it's common sense election security to prevent non-citizen voting, already illegal under federal law, and strengthen verification beyond self-attestation on registration forms.
Critics contend it creates unnecessary barriers as non-citizen voting is extremely rare.
They note that millions of eligible citizens lack easy access to required documents, and it could disrupt registration drives, online mail options, and disproportionately affect groups like the elderly and young voters.
The bill has passed the House multiple times in 24, 25, and 26.
As of early 26, versions continue to be pushed.
For the most current official text, you can go to congress.gov.
Indeed, we can.
So where are we right now, my friends?
Donald Trump has dropped the bomb.
He said, this is our number one priority.
It must get done.
According to Politico, President Donald Trump told House Republicans Monday to pass a major partisan elections bill, a third time with new provisions, saying it should be the GOP's number one priority ahead of midterm elections.
It will guarantee the midterms.
Trump told lawmakers gathered at his golf resort, if you don't get it, big trouble, my opinion.
If you don't get it, big trouble.
The president spent 13 minutes at the close of a nearly hour-long address making crystal clear he expects Speaker Mike Johnson and other top leaders to meet his demands.
The House has already passed two versions of what is now called the Save America Act, but Trump asked the gathered lawmakers to add in provisions curbing male voting and targeting transgender rights, even if it means abandoning the remainder of their legislative agenda.
Let's go for the gold, he said.
It's actually a matter in a serious way of national survival.
We can't have these elections going on like this anymore.
The already passed version of the Save America Act is awaiting a Senate vote.
Majority Leader John Thune has committed to calling it up, but is certain to be blocked by Democrats under the chamber's 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Some conservatives with Trump's backing are looking to sidestep that obstacle with a talking filibuster that would force Democrats to hold the floor.
That is not correct.
And once again, I tell you, this bill is not going to pass for this reason.
The real argument being made by prominent conservatives is that they should nuke the filibuster entirely and just change the rules to say a simple majority passes this.
What they're arguing now in the media is the controlled opposition, as it were.
A talking filibuster.
Still allow it, but make Democrats speak out.
It may actually get to this point so it looks like the process was legitimate.
John Thune may say, okay, fine, we're nuking the filibuster.
You got to do a talking filibuster.
And then you get two Democrats that just talk for six hours each, and then the bill is dead.
Maybe not six hours each, but you get the point.
They'll talk for a long time.
Quote, they have to get it done, he said to the Senate.
If it takes you six months, I'm for not approving anything.
I don't think we should approve anything until this is approved.
He later said in a news conference that certain things will take place while the bill is being debated.
Trump also endorsed a push by some House Republicans, hardliners, to pass the must, to attach a must-pass spy powers extension to the SAVE Act.
Oh, here we go.
The only way the SAVE Act is getting passed is if you put in like $10 billion for the military industrial complex, Ukraine, Israel, or otherwise.
Taiwan gets 10,000 more troops, and Israel gets $2 billion more dollars.
I assume most of you that are watching this, some of you may be liberals, you're saying, yeah, you should have an ID to vote.
That's surprising.
You know, the other day, I say the other day, but this is like a week and a half ago.
I was talking to a friend of mine.
She's a liberal.
She's all right, though.
Regular people are regular people, and that's always allowed, right?
It's just the weird online personalities.
And this was, of course, one of the big debates that we had seen on TV as the news is playing.
And she asked me about it, like, what's the controversy?
And I said, honestly, I don't know.
I mean, we can make up all sorts of reasons why Democrats are blocking this, but the truth is most people believe you should have an ID to vote.
And she was like, wait, wait, that's what the SAVE Act is about?
And I said, yeah, it would require proof of citizenship to register.
So basically an ID.
When you're registering to vote, you got to show an ID.
And the funny thing is most people are doing it at the DMV where they already have their IDs.
So let me just say this again for you guys.
The SAVE Act requires when you are registering to vote to prove you're a citizen.
Okay, when you are getting your ID, you do that already.
This is why it's the stupidest thing imaginable and largely feels like a distraction.
Now, I do understand that a lot of states want to impose you need an ID to vote at the time, but this is about registration.
So you go to the DMV, you're getting your driver's license.
You bring a piece of mail, maybe a couple credit cards, a birth certificate, and your social security card.
And you say, I'm getting my ID.
And then maybe you pass your driving test or you already did.
Maybe you moved to new state, so you need to bring these documents with you.
And then they say, okay, you have sufficiently proven who you are.
You then say, I'm going to check the box to register to vote.
You've already got all of this stuff.
Like you need a real ID to register.
Yeah, they're handing it to you at the DMV or, you know, what else?
The Motor Vehicle Commission, the MVC, whatever state you're in, you weird Commonwealth people.
You go to your DMV or MVC, whatever it is you guys call it.
They hand you your ID.
Be like, does this prove I'm a citizen?
They go, it does.
So I didn't need to bring anything extra.
No, you didn't.
You already had these requirements.
Again, this is not a controversial bill.
So for the life of me, I don't understand why Democrats are blocking it at all.
This should be a rubber stamp with everyone being like, okay, when you get your ID, this already happens.
However, I think this may be actually about some potentially untoward activities.
Now, Donald Trump's threatening to not sign any bills until Congress approves the SAVE Act.
But I know what y'all are saying.
And I know what y'all are saying.
And I have my thoughts and I have my theories.
And I will say this.
While it is not controversial among the voter base, with no proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration, what are the Democrats talking about doing?
They're talking about street-level voter drive initiatives.
They're talking about going to people who otherwise are disinterested in voting and getting them to register.
And then with universal mail-in voting, which of course is still all over this country, they're going to mail a ballot to your house.
Now, I'm not going to go ahead and assume at that point individuals are committing fraud with these mail-in votes.
Certainly it's possible there is ballot harvesting.
But outside of any argument you might make about fraud, I'm going to put it like this.
With an ID requirement to register to vote, it means that you're only going to get real voters to register.
Let me go back to the DMV argument I'm making.
What I'm saying is that for individuals who want to register, you can just do it at the DMV.
That's what I did, right?
And you already got all your documents there.
So it certainly is not difficult for anybody just to do.
Democrats are arguing that they want to go to various places and do voter drives like voter in the park, which is a thing they actually did, and go to nursing homes and make sure people are registered and they don't want to have to verify with any kind of authority figure on elections.
They want to be able to hand you the form, you fill it out, they mail it in, you're done.
The mail-in vote comes.
Then they can go to these nursing homes.
They can go to these community centers.
They can take these mail-in votes and ballot harvest.
Ballot harvesting is not illegal.
Many jurisdictions allow it.
Some, it's illegal, some it's restricted, and some it's totally and completely legal.
For those that are not familiar with ballot harvesting, the way it works is activists will go door to door and they will say, hand me your ballot, I'll drop it off for you.
This is a system bias in favor of urban environments, of course, which skew Democratic.
So put it like this.
This is why Democrats at the political level oppose it and why regular people are for it.
Regular people are like, yeah, it's fine.
But think about it this way.
There is a building in New York City with 300 units.
It's a massive building, 300 units.
Let's say it's 30 floors and each floor has 10 units, big wide building, right?
Well, you're an activist working for the Democratic Party and you want to ballot harvest.
Many people are going to forget to turn their ballots in or maybe they didn't even fill it out.
So you knock on the door.
They answer and they say, how can I help you?
And say, did you receive your mail-in ballot?
And they go, oh yeah, I think I got it right here.
You say, if you fill it out right now, I'll bring it back for you.
The system mathematically will favor population density.
But then of course we can take a look at things that don't really happen in Republican districts.
And that is you are going to get individuals who shouldn't vote.
You are going to get duplicate votes and you're not going to be able to track whether or not an individual actually voted himself.
There's a big controversy in 2020 where an individual who was from Tennessee and had moved to Arizona had voted in Tennessee despite going to college in Arizona.
And he said on the news, I did not do this.
Someone cast that ballot in my name.
Which brings us to the next controversial and untoward activities that we can see from not tracking who is voting properly.
An activist knocks on a door.
There's a woman.
He says, did you vote?
She says, no, but I have my ballots right here.
He says, why don't you fill out the ballot and I'll send it in for you?
And she says, okay, I'll do that.
I also have a couple ballots for my kids.
Maybe you fill those out, you know, right?
Who was the lady on the view who claimed that she filled out the ballot for her son and sent it in, which is voter fraud?
And so the thing is, when they argue that illegal immigrants aren't voting and there's very rare fraud, well, if there's a guy named John Smith and he doesn't vote, he doesn't care, but his ballot gets submitted with a signature that looks kind of weird, but it's approved anyway, is he going to go seek out to find out whether or not he voted?
Indeed, he's not, because he didn't.
So we won't check any databases to see that he did.
In 2020, many people did and they found they had voted despite not being in these areas.
I am not saying it's widespread, but we saw several instances of this.
Again, this is where people begin to accuse Democrats of untoward behavior and wanting voter fraud.
Well, I certainly think there's a potential for that, and I certainly think it has happened.
The real issue is not a question of fraud.
It's a question of ease of access for people who otherwise would not vote, that it heavily favors dense population centers.
So ask yourself this.
Should we create an electoral system that favors people based on the way, the place in which they live, as opposed to their moral worth as an individual?
I think the answer is no.
I think the issue should be we want to make sure that polling locations in big cities and dense areas have enough space so that people don't leave due to long lines.
So you can argue the inverse.
If you live in a rural area and they set up a polling location, you do get to drive a little bit further, but there's not going to be a big long line because there's just less people.
If you live in Manhattan and they only set up a few of these stations, big long lines, you're going to leave and your vote's not going to get counted because you don't want to stand in line.
I think it's fair to say we balance that.
And it's up to the state or the city to make sure they have enough polling locations for population density.
I think it's fair to say for rural areas all the same.
That being said, ballot harvesting will always heavily favor dense urban populations in which Democrats at a political level know if they lose access to ballot harvesting, again, which is not fraudulent in most places, or at least in a large amount of places, they are going to lose elections.
So what is Trump saying?
You pass this and you require people to have an ID to register and we are going to win the midterms.
You know why?
When the Democrats say it's about creating barriers, the Republicans say, no, no, it's about integrity, but I don't care to play these games.
Barriers are absolutely a component of this.
Now, it's not about black people or women or whatever.
It's about just the generally disinterested.
This country would be a lot better off if only the people who were sure and wanted to vote did.
And that includes progressives.
I'm not saying we exclude them.
I'm saying there are many people in big cities that literally don't care and don't want to vote and don't know anything about this stuff that only cast a ballot because a ballot harvester came and said, I'll drop that off for you.
If these individuals are not interested in doing it, I am fine with leaving them out of the vote count and leaving the management of this country to only those who are invested enough to decide to vote.
And I think that's fair.
As for the rest of the Democrats, well, if you want to win power, you want to win power.
And that's the principal reason why, at least in my opinion, despite the fact that voters absolutely want voter ID, Democrats still oppose it.
Because there's a difference between telling the people, there's a difference between winning an election through advocacy and winning an election through just math.
And I think, unfortunately for all of us, the Democrats are going to keep playing this game because it works for them.
I'm not saying everything's fair.
Republicans are perfect, but I tell you, this is why Democrats are playing the game.
Now, as to why Jon Thune is sabotaging this, I think it's because they know it's one big game.
And I believe that the establishment Republicans and Democrats live in a world where they say, you, dear viewer, are too stupid to make these decisions for yourselves, so we're going to make the decisions for you.
But we don't want you angry, so we're going to pretend like you had a say the whole time.
So when you go and cast your vote and the policy that you want fails, you say, I guess that's democracy, when in reality, the system, the game, was rigged from the start.
The question is, will it be enough with the will of the people?
We'll see.
The internet makes an interesting place where we have the ability to talk to each other and decentralize this power.
And boy, does that freak out the powers that be.
The military-industrial complex, the liberal economic order, the powerful elites, the wealthy, the billionaires, the millionaires, and the politically aligned and well-connected old money individuals.
Regular people are standing up and speaking up, and they will do what they can to subvert that.
And they've been successful with it.
But maybe, just maybe, we'll get some victories here and there.
And this could be one of them.
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