UMVA has learned that Republican Senators are digging in their heels, refusing to compromise on the highly popular SAVE America Act, despite overwhelming public support for the voter ID bill.
More than 70% of Americans back the legislation, but that hasn't been enough to bring Senators like John Cornyn and Mike Lee together. The two have been at odds over the bill for weeks, with their disagreements boiling over into a heated closed-door meeting on Wednesday.
Cornyn and other Senators, including Kennedy, reportedly "piled on" Mike Lee during the lunch meeting, challenging his strategy and questioning why President Trump is being led to believe that the bill can pass. The meeting was described as a tense "pile-on" by one insider.
The dispute centers on Cornyn's assertion that the SAVE America Act is dead, and that it's naive to think it can pass. He tweeted on Saturday that "not gonna happen, and every one (except the naive or misinformed) knows it." But Mike Lee fired back, arguing that the bill could still pass if Senators showed strong resolve to debate it until it succeeds.
Lee tweeted that he's "neither naive nor misinformed," and that he's simply unwilling to give up on the bill. He believes that with persistence, the Senate can avoid failure and deliver on the legislation.
President Trump has repeatedly called on the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, emphasizing that requiring voter ID should be a non-partisan issue. The White House has pointed out that more than 70% of Americans support the bill, making it a rare point of consensus in a divided country.
The White House statement on voter ID requirements said that "if you want to register to vote in the United States, you have to be a citizen in the United States." The issue has become a rallying cry for Senators like Mike Lee, who are determined to push the bill forward despite opposition from colleagues like Cornyn.
