Sean Hannity and Sen. Mike Lee dissect the SAVE Act, a citizenship verification bill with 83-17 public support that Lee aims to advance via a "talking filibuster" despite Majority Leader John Thune citing insufficient votes. Hannity rebuts Democratic claims of voter suppression as "paranoid fantasy," citing 71% Democratic backing for the measure while defending it against "Jim Crow 2.0" accusations. The segment further addresses distractions like Whoopi Goldberg's Iran comments and Andrew Cuomo's wife's incident, ultimately framing the bill as essential election integrity protection rather than disenfranchisement. [Automatically generated summary]
All right, news roundup information overload hour.
Our toll-free telephone numbers 800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right.
So I know many people like myself want the SAVE Act to be passed in the U.S. Senate.
It's passed in the House and it would become law.
It is an 83-17 issue in terms of the American people.
Even 71% of Democrats support the idea of proof of citizenship and voter ID for integrity and elections so people can have confidence in results.
Democrats, the same people that have defunded the Department of Homeland Security, meaning that means FEMA and that means the Coast Guard and that means the Secret Service and obviously ICE and Department of Homeland Security and everything in between.
Yeah, that party, the defund dismantle party, the party of sanctuary cities and states and free benefits for people that don't respect our laws and borders.
Yeah, you know, like Chucky Schumer saying on the SAVE Act, you know, Trump thinks undermining the vote is the only prayer Republicans have in the midterms.
Okay, though, that's not true.
On the SAVE Act, Donald Trump has given Republicans in Congress a ridiculous ultimatum.
Help him thoroughly undermine our democracy or he will bring all legislation to a screeching halt.
What kind of president is this?
Sounds like a pouting second grader.
Even though it's clear that the SAVE Act has little chance of becoming law, Donald Trump is still hell-bent on getting Republicans to ram this bill through the chamber because he thinks undermining the vote is the only prayer Republicans have in the midterms.
Isn't that pathetic?
Now, let me play for you a couple of clutch here.
This is Senator Mike Lee who will join us in a moment, pushing the talking filibuster.
We've had him and Ted Cruz on about this issue to get the SAVE Act passed.
Here's what he says.
All right, so we're one step closer now to getting the Save America Act on the Senate floor.
How exactly that's going to happen?
Well, we're still working on that.
There's a lot of uncertainty and some concern, but we're working on it.
The important point right now is for us to refocus our energy on making sure we've got the best arguments we can possibly put forward on this bill.
Now, look, I still believe the very best shot we've got at doing this is invoking the talking filibuster.
Make Democrats stand up, get recognized, and speak.
If they want to filibuster the bill, don't give it to them for free.
Don't let them have the benefits of the filibuster while they're napping or on vacation or whatever else it is that they do.
Make them actually show up and speak.
I'm going to continue to argue for that.
Regardless of what Senate Republican leadership thinks, I'm not going to back away from the fact that I think that is the best possible chance of passing this bill, perhaps the only way.
Regardless, we got to be prepared for what it is that happens when it gets to the floor.
So let's continue to advance the arguments for the bill itself and for the strategy that we think is best.
If not us, who?
If not now, when.
We've got an 85 to 15 issue that is also critical to preserving the integrity of our elections.
Let's get this done.
Don't slow down.
Let's redouble our efforts.
This thing is hitting the floor likely in less than a week.
Let's make it happen.
Now, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno says there are three or four Republicans who won't vote for the SAVE Act.
Here's what he said.
Unfortunately, although he's the majority leader, he doesn't have control over the entire conference.
He can't fire.
He didn't hire these people.
And unfortunately, Law, I'm just going to be blunt.
There's three or four Republicans that just won't be part of the team.
And they row in their own different direction.
And unfortunately, Leader Thune has very little leverage over them.
Now, we're working through it.
Today, we had a very spirited conversation at lunch, and I think we're getting closer to having people realize how important it is for us to deliver on a fundamental promise, which is to secure our elections for the future.
So, I think we're going to get there.
I think we're getting there.
And I can tell you, Senator Thune is open to that dialogue.
He personally calls some of these senators, but it's very, very difficult when you don't have a lot of leverage.
All right, joining us now is Utah Senator Mike Lee.
I had the pleasure of seeing him last weekend.
He's in the free state of Florida.
I was not in Utah.
If I was, I'd be a Kraunberger.
Sir, how are you?
Great to see you and your beautiful family.
Thank you, Sean.
Yeah, we would have been a Krownberger if we were both in Utah.
Look forward to your next visit to the Beehive State, and we'll head to Krownberger.
In the meantime, we are very much looking forward to turning to the Save America Act.
We need this, and we need to pass into law soon.
Okay, so here's where we are.
John Thune on justthenews.com appeared, made the comment, and the president himself has called on the Senate to support this.
He said in this interview, quote, the votes aren't there.
And that's what Bernie Moreno was saying.
One, to nuke the filibuster, and the votes aren't there for a talking filibuster.
It's the reality of where we are now.
I'm the person who has to deliver sometimes the not-so-good news.
The math doesn't add up, but those are the facts, and there's no getting around it.
Now, apparently, there was a conference yesterday, and I did ask, well, what did Mike Lee say?
And they said you didn't really speak up at the conference.
Is that true?
No, that's not true.
I asked a couple of questions about what the plan was, and I've continued to voice my concerns all along about how urgent this is.
Look, and it's great that Senator Thun has agreed to move forward on the Save America Act, and this could happen as soon as next week.
That's fantastic.
How exactly that will happen, we're still working on that with a lot of details yet to be resolved.
And some of the questions I asked yesterday in our private conference discussion were about the implementation of it.
The longer that we keep the debate open and alive before moving to cloture, which is the mechanism by which you bring debate to a close that takes 60 votes, the more we can have this open, robust debate in a way that's not just a quick path to a show vote.
I still strongly believe that if Democrats want to filibuster the bill, we must make them speak.
You see the belligerence that is coming out of them that is culminating in things like they're shutting down the Department of Homeland Security.
We're now into our fourth week of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, thanks to them feeling involved in file office.
And so, look, it's really important for us to get this done to do that.
I think the best way, I think the only way is to do it through the talking filibuster.
If he says we don't have the votes to do it, great.
I would love to know who exactly is saying and exactly what the reasoning is for why we shouldn't do it.
I have yet to hear a compelling reason why we shouldn't, other than the conclusory assertion that we can't because we don't have enough support for it.
If people feel strongly that we shouldn't do it, they should explain why publicly.
Well, I think a lot of people already have been.
I think there's not a Republican or a Democrat that's not been asked the question.
I love your idea of keeping the vote open.
And you and I had a private conversation this weekend, and you made a very good point.
And you pointed to the Civil Rights Act of 64, the Voting Rights Act of 65, and you rightly pointed out those votes were kept open for months and months, and public pressure began to build and build and build and build and build, which I think is a viable option.
I mean, how do you keep a bill up and open for that long a period of time?
You keep the Senate in session.
You keep senators who are opposed to the bill, who want the benefits of the filibuster.
Historically, the benefit of the filibuster included and still entails the ability to delay passage of the bill by debating it.
But it came at a cost.
You had to stand and be recognized, and you had to speak.
In recent decades, we've gotten soft with the way we implement it.
And we allow for something that I refer to sometimes as the zombie filibuster.
You could also call it the napping filibuster, the sleeping filibuster, the vacationing filibuster, where all you have to do is signal that you will vote against cloture when the time comes, and then people are just expected to say, well, it can't pass.
Or you move quickly to a cloture vote after turning to a bill, failed to achieve 60 votes, and they say it can't pass.
Well, had they done that in 1964, then the Civil Rights Act would not have become law that year.
At the time it was passed by the House of Representatives in March of 1964.
They had enough votes in the House to pass it.
When it came to the Senate, they were 32 votes shy of cloture.
They sought to close that gap by requiring filibustering senators to speak, and they did this for weeks on end.
After about 60 days of this, those who were doing that saw that they were losing, saw that the bill was gaining in popularity, and started negotiating changes that would make them able to vote for it, either by saving face or ameliorating some of their concerns.
They ended up with a modified version of the bill that was able to achieve the necessary votes for closure.
That's the kind of magic that can happen when people are required through exertion to subject themselves to a process that tends to sharpen the mind and hasten agreement.
That's what we need here.
I know.
Let me throw something else by you, because I've talked to all sides of this, and I just want to get your answer on it, because I, like you, believe we should keep it open for as long as is needed and let the pressure build.
I like that idea.
I like that idea a lot.
And I think pressure will build.
I mean, 71% of Democrats for Crying Out Loud support this is one thing.
On the one side, there are people saying, well, if Democrats get control of the floor of the Senate, then they will be able to put a lot of votes on record of Republicans that they believe will help them in the midterms.
That's one argument.
I'm giving it to you so you can give me your response.
And secondarily, that there are Republicans up for reelection from the Senate that don't have particularly easy reelection races, and it's going to put them in a tougher spot.
What's your reaction to both?
Okay, as to point one.
Yes, it's true.
When we get into this posture, Democrats would propose all kinds of amendments, and they could ask us to vote on amendments that Republicans may or may not want to vote for.
I've got two responses to this point.
Number one, this is what we do.
There's a common saying around here.
It goes something like this.
If you don't want to be a firefighter, if you don't want to fight fires, don't become a firefighter.
If you don't want to cast tough votes, don't become a lawmaker.
We do these things all the time.
In budget reconciliation, for example, it's a routine thing.
We had to do this more times than I can count with the one big beautiful bill act.
We still got it done.
We just lock arms and conclude at the outset anything that undermines the bill, that makes it impossible to pass in the form that the conference is willing to accept.
We will agree to table.
And if we stand together on that, we can table them.
It happens all the time.
It happened a few weeks ago when we were passing spending bills.
I had some amendments that those who really wanted the bill to pass, either to make sure they got their earmarks in or otherwise, just agreed to table rather than moving forward.
We're able to do that.
Secondly, there are procedures that the majority leader can use, known as filling the tree, where the majority leader can use his unique privileges as majority leader to set up amendments so that he can control which amendments we vote on in what order and when.
As to the second point, the second point, my answers relate closely to my answers on the first point.
Yes, there are members of the Senate in both political parties who are up for re-election, and some of them have tough races.
Insofar as Republicans are involved there, first, John, I will say nothing's more important than securing our elections to make sure we can win those.
And our base wants this.
When else do we find something that unites our base and that is like an 83-17-85-15 issue in our favor and that even the majority of Democrats nationwide support it?
See, it's only the Democrats in Congress that are freaked out about this.
Why not try it?
It would actually help, I believe, with those in tough races.
All right, quick break.
Right back more with Senator Mike Lee of Utah on the other side.
Then your call's coming up.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program as we continue.
All right, our final moments.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah talking about the SAVE Act and the current status.
It is going to come up for a vote in the Senate.
Where it goes from there, I don't know.
Neither does the Senator, but we're trying to get more public support for it.
Look what Democrats are doing.
Chuck Schumer first calls it Jim Crow 2.0.
Now he's complaining that this Save America Act will cost, will purge millions of voters from the voting rolls.
Well, that means those would be people that are not eligible to vote, Chuck.
Right, right.
Yeah, we call those non-citizens.
Non-citizens are forbidden from voting.
It's just that existing law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, has made it really impossible to enforce those laws.
So this is a way that we can enforce them.
And we need them enforced.
As to his claims about Jim Crow 2.0 or about taking a lot of people who shouldn't be taken off the voter rolls off the rules, both of those accusations are paranoid fantasy.
And they are recklessly and arguably even willfully false.
In the first place, if this is Jim Crow 2.0, then do you know what else is?
Well, the Super Bowl, the Grammys, the Emmys, every pharmacy in America, PSA, every airline, every hospital, every doctor's office, and by the way, also the Democratic National Convention.
Enforcing Non-Citizen Voting Laws00:04:22
What do all those things have in common?
Well, you got to show who you are and that you have a right to be there and doing what you're doing when you show up.
And to do that, you have to produce some documents.
So you better be careful how he throws around that characterization or else he'll look silly because this is an absolutely silly argument.
Looking silly is his full-time job, let's be honest.
Anyway, Senator Mike Lee, it was great to see you in the free state of Florida.
Next time I'm in Utah, Crown Burgers on me.
Appreciate you.
Your family is lovely.
Thanks so much for being with us and staying on this.
We appreciate the update.
Thanks so much, Sean.
Oh, did you hear Whoopi Goldberg?
This Iranian war is a distraction.
Linda, you will never guess what from.
Take a guess.
Take a guess.
Her love life?
That seems non-existent.
I don't know anything about her love life.
I don't know about that.
It's a joke.
Go with it.
Work with me, please.
From Nancy Guthrie and Jeffrey Epstein.
This is what she said today.
Oh, boy.
I mean, it is just nutty as hell.
It's nutty as hell.
Yeah.
And you're right.
Every day is something new.
And it's, you know, I was thinking about it yesterday because I thought, well, okay, why haven't we been talking about Savannah Guthrie and what's going on there?
Why haven't we not been taught?
Why have we not been talking about the Epstein file?
Because that's still there.
Yeah.
This is meant to get us so worked up that we are unable to see anything else.
It's a very wacky dog feeling.
You've got a very wacky dog feeling.
I don't think so.
I don't believe she's right there.
All right, let's get to our busy phones.
Let's say hi to Joe and Elijah.
Hey, Joe, how are you?
Glad you called.
Sean, great show.
We appreciate all you're doing for the American taxpayers.
And I think Trump is doing a great job.
I think we're going to win the Iran war.
I think this will help the stock market.
It'll help the Republicans win the midterms, which I think they'll do with your help and all Trump's doing.
So I'm very fired up about the future.
And thanks for all you do for the hardworking American taxpayers.
Well, thank you for all you do, Joe.
You've been a friend of this program for decades.
We do appreciate you.
800-941-Sean.
Lori is in Virginia.
Lori, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hello, Sean.
So I've got word on the street for what actually really went down at Gracie Mansion, okay?
Okay.
What's the word on the street?
So you see here, these young boys, they just happened to be in the neighborhood.
And they were actually, they were a little tipsy because they happened to be leaving the Mamdami family craft night.
And it was a multicultural event that they were doing.
And of course, it was led by Mom Daumi's wife.
You know, she's getting her.
The one that, according to reports, 70 likes on social media.
The people praising the October 7th, you know, murder and kidnapping and torture, beheading.
Yeah, I mean, those likes that we shouldn't pay attention to, or the big Mamdani lie about, let's see.
Oh, it was just a snowball fight among kids when it was an ambush NYPD officers and he wouldn't defend them.
Or the fact that he couldn't talk about the ISIS-inspired people that were, you know, lighting IEDs outside of his house.
Unbelievable.
Yeah, well, she's getting a big name for herself, you know, as a terror artist.
It's her new genre.
And, well, they were so tipsy when they were leaving her house that they just dropped their little project.
And they meant to say, oh, my God, but being multicultural, it came out as probably akba because, you know, they did it in a New York accent because they're so well assimilated.
So that's I'm just look.
Well, first of all, they were actually American born.
I mean, one of the kids grew up in a two and a quarter million dollar house in Linda's state of Pennsylvania.
I mean, it's crazy.
Yeah, you know, that's how the liberals are going to spin it.
Nice, innocent boys.
Tipsy Multicultural Comedy Blunder00:08:35
Yeah, it's sad.
I mean, the whole thing is sad.
Anyway, Lori, we appreciate you.
God bless you.
Sorry, you're now in Virginia with Spamberger.
Good luck there.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Back to our phones.
New Joyce Mary's next on the Sean Hannity Show.
How are you?
I hear you finally have a good weather day up there.
Congratulations.
You guys have had a rough time this winter.
Well, it just started raining.
All right.
I spoke too soon.
I apologize.
You did, yes.
And it's going to get cold again this weekend and next week.
I'm just saying.
Yeah, I know.
I spent 36 years in Georgia, so I'm not enjoying this winter.
First, I want to say God.
The thing about Georgia, you do get cold weather.
You do get, you know, seasons, but they're very short.
In other words, winter's over there now.
It's done.
Yes.
Yes.
The air conditioners are already on because the pollen's already coming in.
Exactly.
And by the way, the pollen, I had a black car in Georgia.
I'd get in it every day.
And every day it was just covered with yellow dust.
It was terrible.
I never had allergies till I went to Georgia.
I know me either.
I want to talk about the SAVE Act.
I am female.
I am not a person of color, but I am.
I have been married.
I was widowed in 2019.
And I am disabled.
I'm legally blind.
I've never been able to drive.
My father was legally blind.
My sister is legally blind.
Both her children are.
Her daughter's husband is almost totally blind.
My partner's totally blind.
And somehow we've always been able to get IDs that we've had to prove our citizenship.
That protection is actually in the 32-page bill.
Just so you know.
And that, you know, the Democrats have just been pushing the big lie that, oh, well, you know, women that use their maiden name or women that aren't married anymore, they can't register to vote.
And Chuck Schumer trying to scare people, lie to them.
Jim Crow 2.0 now saying that millions will be off the voter rolls.
Well, they won't be off the voter rolls if they're American citizens and they have legal ID.
And as you're pointing out, you never had a license.
By the way, I'm sorry you lost your husband.
Oh, well, thank you.
When I turned 18 years old, I went from New Jersey to Ohio to start college, and I had to have an ID even back then because I was flying back and forth.
And I don't know if you remember, even back then, the New York airports had PSA-like security back then because of the Cuban hostage crisis.
Detroit Metro had TSA-like security in the 1980s.
I've never not had to have an ID.
I've had a real ID.
I've had a passport.
I had a concealed carry permit where I had to prove my citizenship, my residency, and go through a background check.
I've had a liquor servers license because I sold beer and wine in Walmart in Forsyth County, Georgia.
You know, I've never had an ID where I did not have to present my drive, my birth certificate, my social security card, and my marriage certificate.
And, you know, my parents taught me when I was 18 years old to always have those put somewhere, but at ready access.
Well, I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to tell you something.
You know, this is important.
We need integrity in our elections.
We just do.
And I can think of no better way.
I understand the math problem that they have in the Senate.
I'm sympathetic to it, but Mike Lee, I think, is dead on.
Bring this to the floor, leave it open.
And then people hopefully can weigh in.
And like the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, enough people will have enough pressure on them, considering it's an 8317 issue, that we can get this thing over the finish line.
That's our hope.
Okay.
And then the Alphabet Networks and CNN and MS Now, they'll all have to cover it so people will actually hear about it.
And you know what?
Well, I'm not so sure about that part, but I hear what you're saying for sure.
When people like Chuck Schumer say that it will disenfranchise people like me because I'm female, I've been married and I'm disabled, that's insulting and demeaning to me.
It is insulting.
It is demeaning and it is sad.
And I'm going to tell you something, but you have enough faith and confidence in who you are that nobody's going to take your joy and your happiness away from you, are they?
Because you're not going to let them.
That's right.
And, you know, I've lived in four different states.
I've lived at 16 different addresses, and I've always managed to get an ID and be able to do what I want to do.
Right.
Tonight, my partner and I are going to our first meeting.
We're going to start raising puppies for CNI.
Oh, that's awesome.
Good for you.
I love dogs.
As a matter of fact, I got a brand new puppy coming.
I've only shared it with Linda and a few people in my life, but my new puppy is hopefully arriving pretty soon.
Okay.
And we'll introduce the new puppy to the world.
I think you're going to think she's adorable.
Well, the guide dogs for the blind are amazing, what they allow the blind cute.
And so, and C9 is so good.
They're so good.
This is something that we really want to do.
And, you know, we're, you know, we get out and about.
New Jersey Transit has a great paratransit service.
We can get where we need to go.
But guess what?
We had to have IDs to register for New Jersey Transit.
Paratransit.
You need ID to get on a plane.
You need ID to get a beer or a bottle of wine.
It's ridiculous.
It's unbelievable.
Anyway, Mary, God bless you.
We do appreciate you, and we're glad you're out there.
Linda, how cute is my puppy?
It's a beautiful, beautiful dog, no question.
A beautiful, beautiful dog.
It's a great doggie.
But you don't like it because it's not a shelter dog.
I didn't say that.
I said I would prefer you to adopt not shop.
That's right.
That's what this base is.
I have adopted in the past.
We're not talking about the past.
We're living in the present.
I don't have to live.
I don't have to do what you want every time.
I'm allowed to get the dog that I like if you're a little bit more.
And you are.
And I'm happy for you.
Good luck.
No, you've been critical from day one that I didn't go to the local shelter.
I've donated to shelters many times in my life.
I love animals.
Thank you.
How ironic it is that, you know, I forgot what state it was in, but we had the PETA lady on TV one night.
And it turns out like 64% of cats and dogs and animals that go to the PETA shelter are killed.
I mean, how ironic was that?
It's actually horrible.
I worked for many years with a lot of the kill shelters, and I still get all the notices.
I mean, they'll have nine hours, eight hours, seven hours.
They're just looking for anybody to take them into Foster's.
And just imagine if people weren't breeding dogs.
How many times have you been like looking and it's down to an hour and then you go get the dog?
Oh, I'm the worst.
It's very bad.
I can't like look away.
Yeah, how many dogs or cats have you had at one time, like the highest number?
I mean, I grew up with a lot of animals.
My parents are the same way that I am.
So, I mean, at one point, you know, we've had two and three dogs and cats.
We've had squirrels that got hit by cars.
We had birds.
I mean, we had everything.
You adopted a squirrel?
I don't know that we adopted him, but he got hit by a car.
His mom was killed and he was a baby.
And we gave him milk and nursed him back to life.
And he came and visited us every single day.
Every single day for the rest of his life.
So you set him free and then he came back for free food every day.
It was a liberal.
Exactly.
We give him a little bit of peanuts and he comes say hi.
He's a liberal squirrel.
You taught him to be dependent on you.
I know, right?
Terrible.
Terrible.
No, I love animals.
You know, I actually have friends of mine that are really big hunters and they don't understand why I'm not into hunting.
Yeah, I don't care.
And I make fun of one friend in particular.
It's kind of like they go to this place and they have their, what do you call those?
It's like they build a fort up on top of a tree, a deer stand.
Miracle of the Liberal Squirrel00:01:20
That's it.
And, you know, he's got this deer stand.
Here's the thing, though.
And they have wild hogs and deer that will come to the area.
They put out all this food in the same place every single night.
And they think this is hunting.
I'm like, that's not hunting.
That's target practice.
I said, yeah, of course I can't miss from that range.
You can't.
I mean, that was kind of the miracle of Butler.
I mean, from that range, it is a layup shot for anybody with any experience.
And thank God, within a millimeter, President Trump's life was saved.
He turned his head at the right second.
God's hand was on that one for sure.
Anyway, 800-941-Sean is a number if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, that's going to wrap things up for today.
We are loaded up tonight.
News information you'll not get from the legacy media mob.
We'll check in with Senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton.
Also, UN Ambassador Mike Waltz.
He's been handing these people to UN their head on a helmet every day, and he's been doing great.
Dave Asman on the economy, price of gas.
Clay Travis tonight, Wright's Previous tonight, Katie Miller tonight.