Senate Leader Snaps Over Trump Trying to Force a Vote on SAVE Act

Senate Majority Leader John Thune tore into Karoline Leavitt Thursday, rebuking the press secretary hours after she announced that the White House was losing patience with his inability to pass Donald Trump’s wildly unpopular SAVE America Act.

“Well maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes, right?” Thune told reporters. “It’s 50 around here. And, so, instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats.”

“And if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone. Let’s get them to ‘yes,’” he added.

At a press conference earlier in the day, Leavitt revealed that the president’s “patience is running out.”

“He wants to see as much of the SAVE America Act passed by the August recess,” Leavitt said. “He knows that’s what the American people want to see passed.”

The Senate goes into recess on August 7. The House, which began its month-long recess Thursday, voted 216–214 to adopt a budget blueprint Wednesday night that included portions of Trump’s voter restriction bill.

The president has predicated his support for any legislative effort on the SAVE Act’s passage. Since the beginning of the year, Trump has insisted it should be Congress’s top priority. He has refused to sign any bill and even derailed Cabinet confirmations until Capitol Hill bends to his will. So far, that stalemate has gummed up efforts to fund the Department of Homeland Security, stalled attempts to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, and upended a planned photo op of Trump signing a landmark bipartisan housing bill.

The original iteration of the SAVE America Act sparked nationwide backlash for proposing numerous amendments to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, perhaps chief among them a requirement that voters bring either a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Critics argued that the mandate would unduly restrict millions of Americans from voting, pointing out that half of the country’s population lacks a passport, and furthermore that the legislation as written would make it difficult for anyone who changed their name—including married women—to register.

The bill would also require voters to present photo identification when casting a ballot, and impose a total ban on mail-in voting. Trump has described the latter procedure as “crooked” and “corrupt,” despite the fact that he himself has cast several mail-in ballots. ...