Speaker Mike Johnson Weighs Adding SAVE Act to Spending Bill After Trump’s Request — Mitch McConnell Must be Furious
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is reportedly considering the inclusion of the SAVE Act in the upcoming spending bill. This decision comes at the behest of former President Donald Trump, who has made it clear that election integrity is a non-negotiable priority.
The SAVE Act, which mandates proof of citizenship for voter registration in federal elections, has become a rallying cry for many Americans who believe it is crucial to safeguarding the sanctity of the ballot box.
President Trump has been unyielding in his support for the SAVE Act, going as far as to suggest that the government should shut down if the bill is not included in the Continuing Resolution (CR).
Speaking on Monica Crowley’s podcast, Trump emphasized the importance of the SAVE Act, along with other measures like reverting to paper ballots and bolstering border security, as essential steps to protect the nation’s future.
Here’s the partial transcript from the interview:
Monica Crowley: Mr. President—election integrity and the Harris no-borders policy. It’s not open borders, it’s no borders, which, of course, now she’s trying to run away from. You support the SAVE Act, which would block non-citizens from voting in this election and in the future. Do you support adding the SAVE Act to the spending bill that Congress is going to take up next month in September to try to get it into law before this election?
Trump: Absolutely. And I think you should also change your elections to paper ballots. I think you should get a lot of things for that. That’s a big deal. When they extend that bill, they’ll extend it again and again. The Republicans ought to try and get some things for a change—the House and the Senate—they ought to go for getting things. They don’t get anything. They extend everything. Then it comes due.
Let’s say I win the election, then you know where it comes due, Monique? It comes due for me. The Democrats don’t extend. They don’t extend. They play a different game. They play a much different game. That’s what they ought to do. We’ll see what they do.
But if they don’t get the SAVE Act, if they don’t get much tougher than the SAVE Act—the SAVE Act is just one element—they ought to go into a whole thing where you want to have borders. They ought to focus on borders. The House bill that was passed—that’s the real bill that should be passed, but the original one, not this horrible one that was foisted upon us by some people that had a bad day.
But they ought to focus on borders and elections. If you can’t get the borders right, and if you can’t get the elections right, they ought to close it up. Just close it up and let it sit.
Monica Crowley: On the SAVE Act, Mr. President, it was reported a couple of days ago that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell opposes including it in the spending bill. So if that is true, I guess he wants illegals voting in huge numbers, which would likely mean your defeat.
So what would you like to say to Senator McConnell and other Republicans who might oppose this? And if they don’t get it into the bill, would you support shutting down the government over it?
Trump: I would shut down the government in a heartbeat if they don’t get it in the bill. And part of the problem is they gave away trillions and trillions of dollars to these people on the Green New Deal, on the Inflation Reduction Act, which wasn’t even meant to be for inflation reduction.
They named it that so it sounded good. Now, if they don’t get these bills, they should close it down and Republicans should not approve it. Now, I would disagree with them on that. You can get a lot. I mean, look at the debt ceiling. Look what happened with the debt ceiling. They extended it into the term of the next president.
Monica Crowley: Are you calling on Senator McConnell then and all Senate Republicans, and the House Republicans too, to make sure the SAVE Act is in this spending bill?
Trump: Well, it should be in the bill. For some reason, they don’t do it. They don’t do things that can really help our nation. It should be in the bill.
If it’s not in the bill, you ought to close it up. But you need more than the SAVE Act. You need borders. It should be in the bill—real borders. We had, like, the Congressional bill of a year ago. That was the real deal. It’s unbelievable to me how they don’t use leverage.
They have such leverage, and they don’t use it. I’m not there, but I have influence. But it seems to me they only need a fairly small number of Republican votes. That’s how they got all this trillions and trillions of dollars.
That should have never been granted, by the way. Should have never. If I was there, well, I wouldn’t have been asking for it, so you wouldn’t have had that problem. I wouldn’t have been asking for it. They loaded up the country with debt. They loaded up the country with money, and they spent it unwisely. They haven’t even spent it yet, for the most part. They haven’t spent 70% of it.
The prospect of a government shutdown over the SAVE Act has already drawn the ire of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is reportedly opposed to its inclusion in the spending bill.
RINO Sellout Mitch McConnell Moves to Torpedo Election Integrity Efforts by Blocking SAVE Act In Upcoming Spending Bill – And Open Door to Illegals Voting in US Elections https://t.co/XsaOQOP8jk pic.twitter.com/AsdNbkTMmn
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) August 29, 2024
Now, Punchbowl News reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly pushing to attach the SAVE Act to the upcoming Continuing Resolution (CR) intended to fund the government through March 2025.
Newsbowl Punch reported:
Why is Johnson doing this? The speaker is getting pressure from hardline conservatives and former President Donald Trump to attach the SAVE Act to the CR even if it threatens a shutdown.
Conservatives also want a CR until next year in hopes that Trump will be back in office.
We’ll note that this is the speaker’s opening salvo. Johnson is running this play early – the week of Sept. 9 – to try to give himself time to make the case that he moved a CR and the onus should be on the Senate to accept it.
Will this work? No. First, it’ll be difficult for Johnson to get 218 votes for this proposal. There are a lot of House Republicans who just won’t vote for any CR. The hope in the GOP leadership is that Johnson will gain Republican votes by inserting the SAVE Act.
But moderate Republicans and those in swing districts have little to gain here by threatening a shutdown just five weeks before Election Day. The Senate won’t go for it – including some Republicans – and the White House will say no.
NEWS in @PunchbowlNews AM — @SpeakerJohnson is looking at passing a stopgap funding bill next week that keeps govt funded until MARCH 2025. But he’d attach the SAFE Act to it, which will be a nonstarter w most all Democrats.
ALSO — JOHNSON is now favorable to funding government…
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 2, 2024
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