Republicans Devise Bonkers Plan to Ram SAVE Act Through Congress

Republican Senate leaders are attempting to use the budget reconciliation process to force their warmongering and President Trump’s SAVE Act through Congress without any Democratic votes.

“The purpose of the second reconciliation bill is to make sure there is adequate funding to secure our homeland and to support our men and women in the military who are fighting so bravely. More funding will mean they can complete the task assigned and keep America safe—which is money well spent,” Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on X Wednesday morning, referring to the lengthy process in which only 51 votes are needed to pass budget-related legislation. “During President Trump’s second term, the murder rate marked the largest single-year drop in recorded history and illegal border crossings are at the lowest level since the 1970’s. Imagine what will happen when we fully invest in President Trump’s public safety mission. I also think we have many opportunities to improve voter integrity through reconciliation.”

However, many on the right do not agree that reconciliation is a viable way to pass the SAVE Act, which would institute extreme voter ID requirements only months before the midterm elections.

“It’s hard to imagine how the SAVE America Act could be passed through reconciliation,” Senator Mike Lee, a co-sponsor of the SAVE Act, wrote on X Tuesday. “And by ‘hard’ I mean ‘essentially impossible.’

“It can’t pass through budget reconciliation because it’s a policy, it is not budgetary,” Lee continued in a video post Tuesday evening. “Do not be fooled into thinking that we can set down the SAVE Act and just pick it up on budget reconciliation. That’s not going to work.”

Lee is not alone among Republicans in Congress, and other members don’t see the SAVE Act passing through the reconciliation process. Leading Democrats confirmed as such Wednesday on the Senate floor.

“If you want to shove the SAVE Act into reconciliation, then have at it. We’re going to fight you tooth and nail throughout the reconciliation process, every step of the way,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “You’re going to find it very difficult to jam massive changes to the American election system ... by using a process that was never designed for that purpose.”

Graham also faces criticism for the legislation’s hawkish priorities.

“Just to recap—we couldn’t have a second budget reconciliation bill focused on family affordability because it would cost too much and prove too difficult to get across the finish line,” Patrick T. Brown of the Ethics and Public Policy Center wrote on X Wednesday. “But we *can* have one so long as it focuses on spending $200b on a war we elected to start.”

Amid a rising number of unlawful kidnappings and deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, New Jersey has banned all law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from wearing masks.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed a bill Wednesday that prevents officers from concealing their identity while engaging with the public in any official capacity. It also requires agents to identify themselves before making an arrest. (It includes exceptions for officers working undercover.)

It was one of three pieces of legislation signed by Sherrill to protect immigrant rights across the state and push back against Trump’s unlawful immigration agenda, a promise she campaigned on before taking office in January. A nearly identical bill was vetoed by former Governor Bill Murphy in his final day of office.

“As we’ve seen across the country, Donald Trump’s untrained, unaccountable, masked ICE agents are putting people in danger,” Sherrill said in a statement. “That’s why in New Jersey, we are protecting our communities—strengthening our protections, banning ICE agents from wearing masks, and protecting residents’ privacy from federal overreach.”

The bill comes as ICE ramps up violence, kidnappings, and deportations across the country. Following Trump’s orders, federal officers have mostly recently taken to arresting people at airports without identifying themselves, plummeting public approval of the agency to an all-time low. Recent polling from YouGov shows that a record-high 50 percent of Americans either somewhat or strongly support abolishing ICE entirely.

The Trump administration has been harshly critical of mask bans, claiming without justification that they are unconstitutional. In February, a federal judge blocked a similar law passed in California that prevents federal agents from wearing masks.

But Sherrill offers a rare glimmer of hope for those in the Garden State, which is home to one of the highest immigrant populations in the U.S. Along with the mask ban, the Democratic governor also passed legislation that bars health care facilities from requesting a person’s confidential information like their address and immigration status, as well as a bill that limits when local and state law enforcement have to comply with federal immigration enforcement.

“I can’t believe we have to say this, but in the United States of America, we’re not going to tolerate masked, roving militias pretending to be well-trained law enforcement agents,” she said at a bill-signing ceremony Wednesday.

Prominent Republicans are bristling at the Trump administration’s opaque Iran war plans, particularly after a closed-door briefing of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Wednesday.

Alabama Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chair of the House committee, told reporters after the briefing that the Pentagon wasn’t providing sufficient information about its aims in the Middle East.

“We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are, and why they’re being considered,” Rogers said. “We’re just not getting enough on those questions.”

Rogers added that the Pentagon did not answer general questions about the additional 3,000 troops and over 2,000 Marines that the administration is sending to Iran. There are already roughly 50,000 U.S. troops in the area, despite Trump telling reporters last week that he’s “not putting troops anywhere.”

“We just wanted them to tell us what’s the plan, and we didn’t get any answers,” Rogers said. “I understand they can’t give us—they shouldn’t give us—specific operational details. But generally, we should be able to get more texture than we’re receiving from them.… This is a consistent pattern of tagging the base and saying, ‘We came over and briefed you.’ But they’re not telling us things, substantive things.”

Politico’s Connor O’Brien asked the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Roger Wicker, what he thought of Rogers’s remarks.

“Let me put it this way, I can see why he might have said that,” Wicker replied.

But the always-vocal Nancy Mace was the most furious Republican after the briefing. Mace wrote a number of posts on X criticizing both the war and the government’s unclear objectives.

“Just walked out of a House Armed Services briefing on Iran,” read one post. “Let me repeat: I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing.”

Another of Mace’s posts elaborated: “The justifications presented to the American public for the war in Iran were not the same military objectives we were briefed on today in the House Armed Services Committee. This gap is deeply troubling. The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people.”

The comments are a welcome turn against an illegal, unpopular war. But let’s not forget that all three lawmakers were supportive of Trump’s decision to strike Iran in February.

“History will record this night,” Mace wrote after the first U.S. missiles fell. “America and Israel did not flinch and did not negotiate with darkness.”

The next time White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wants to double down on one of Donald Trump’s dubious claims, she should really consult a dictionary first.

During a press briefing Wednesday, Leavitt was asked about Trump’s comments the day before when he claimed that regime change had been achieved in Iran.

“I mean, has it not?” Leavitt replied, smirking. “Their entire leadership has been killed. And nobody has really seen, or legitimately heard from this alleged new leader. So, wouldn’t you say there has been a change in the regime?”

“There has been a change in the leadership,” the reporter replied.

“There’s been a change in the regime leadership, which is what the president said. So, thank you for confirming he was right,” Leavitt said.

Former national security adviser John Bolton—and everyone else with a high school education—disagrees with that assessment.

“The faces may change, but the ideology remains the same,” Bolton told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday. “The regime will change when the ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guard are gone, and we’re not at that point yet, quite obviously. But it’s another way for him to say that we have won the objective and therefore are victorious and can leave.”

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has only consolidated power after the U.S. and Israel launched a series of brutal airstrikes that killed members of the Iranian regime, The Washington Post reported last week.

After Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed earlier this month, his son Mojtaba Khamenei, a hard-line cleric, was tapped to replace him. Trump has claimed that Khamenei is not an acceptable replacement but admitted he would be open to working with another religious leader. His own remarks revealed what was already clear: that his administration has no plan for a postwar Iran.

President Trump claimed on Wednesday that “the public is loving ICE.” In reality, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s approval ratings are actually the lowest they’ve ever been.

“I am so proud of our ICE Patriots! They were unfairly maligned by the Lunatic Democrats for years, and now, at the Airports, in addition to what they are supposed to be doing, they are helping people with bags, even picking up and cleaning areas. They are so proud to be there!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Public is loving ICE, so the Democrats, unwittingly, did us a favor—They are Great American Patriots, they just happen to have much larger, and harder, muscles than most—which is what they’re supposed to have.”

The public is not loving ICE. Recent polling from YouGov shows that a record-high 50 percent of Americans either somewhat or strongly support abolishing the agency entirely.

Opposition to abolishing ICE is now at its lowest levels ever, dropping from 45 to 39 percent since January. The majority of Americans still think of masked men banging down doors and killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti in the street when they think of ICE.

It’s also hard to ignore this strange comment on “larger” and “harder” muscles, something that is clearly more fantasy for Trump than reality.

“Great. Ok @realDonaldTrump, I’m game. Let’s make the November election a referendum on this issue, and ONLY this issue—If you love ICE and love what ICE is doing, vote Republican,” wrote “Never Trump” Republican and former Representative Joe Walsh on X. “If you don’t love ICE and don’t love what ICE is doing, vote Democrat. Simple. I like our odds …”