Josh Hawley ripped the 4 GOP senators who voted to block the SAVE Act from the ballot
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., criticized four fellow Republicans who joined Democrats to block an effort to add the Protecting American Voting Eligibility (SAVE) Act to the Senate’s reconciliation package, saying “you can’t explain to me why you don’t vote for voter ID.”
During Thursday’s vote, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Thom Tillis, RN.C., voted with Democrats to defeat an amendment that would have attached an election integrity measure to the GOP budget package.
“I think it’s frustrating,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “Listen, we’ve been doing this in Missouri for years. I mean, the voters of my state put it in our constitution.”
FOUR REPUBLICANS SENATE AND JOIN DEMS TO BLOCK TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT
Sens. Thom Tillis, RN.C., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined Senate Democrats again to kill an attempt to attach the SAVE America Act to the GOP’s immigration enforcement plan. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Photo by Li Ying/Xinhua via Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Voter ID is a very popular thing there,” he continued. “There is a reason for that. People want their election to be safe, they want it to be fair. And to me, you can’t explain to me, why you wouldn’t vote for a voter ID. I just don’t understand.”
The Republicans, again, failed to pass this law on Thursday night in the Senate, although for months they have been discussing the importance of attaching it to the recovery package of approximately 70 million dollars to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol.
REPUBLICANS FAILED TO KILL THE LAST AMERICA ACT AMID PARTY-LINE FUNDING
Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., and Senate GOP leaders are pushing forward with a budget reconciliation to fund the last part of the government that was blocked by Senate Democrats’ opposition to President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu)
Many senators who voted to block the SAVE act argued that a bill dedicated to voter ID laws and protecting the integrity of elections should be determined at the federal level, and should not have federal power.
Hawley rejected arguments that election laws should be left to the states alone, saying Congress has long played a role in regulating federal elections.
“We do federal rules all the time in elections, you know,” Hawley said. “I mean we always do. And there’s nothing more fundamental than protecting the integrity of the vote and that’s what this is all about.”
PENCE CALLS POTENTIAL JUDGMENTS TO ‘RESTORE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE’ THROUGH NATIONAL VOTER LAW.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questions acting US Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate during a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 30, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Congress has enacted numerous election-related laws over the years, including the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, which overhauled the procedures for verifying the results of presidential elections.
The SAVE Act would require applicants to provide written proof of US citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and would require voters to present photo identification when voting in federal elections.
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“37 states already have voter ID, including several green states,” Hawley said in response to the idea that election laws should be left up to the state. “So I think this idea that this is like ‘this is weird, this is unusual, this is out there,’ no it’s not. Like most of our states do it.”
“Over time this will happen because I think the American people will want it.”
