President Donald Trump on Thursday put the blame for last week’s Republican midterm losses squarely on the Senate, saying its failure to pass the SAVE America Act, the House-passed voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill, was “devastating” to the party.
“Where things are sent to die”
In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump wrote:
“The Republican Senate can no longer be the place ‘where things are sent to die.’ Not passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT (Voter I.D., Proof of Citizenship), sent up five times by the House, was devastating to the Republican Party in the Midterms.”
He also went after Senate Republicans for keeping the filibuster in place:
“Not terminating the Filibuster, and getting EVERYTHING even ‘dreamt’ of, approved, when the Dems will definitely do so, will go down as being one of the greatest mistakes in the Political History of America.”
What the SAVE America Act would do
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act would tighten identity requirements for voter registration by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections. The bill passed the House but never cleared the Senate, where most legislation still needs 60 votes to get past a filibuster.
In the weeks before Election Day, the administration stepped up efforts to keep noncitizens from voting, with states including California and Washington coming under federal scrutiny over their voter rolls, according to The Hill. Federal law already says only U.S. citizens may vote in federal elections.
The fallout
Democrats are set to take control of both the House and the Senate in January after last week’s elections. With Scott Colom’s win in Mississippi, Democrats will hold at least 55 Senate seats, and the Alaska race between Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola is still being counted.
That leaves a short lame-duck window for Republicans who still hold the gavel. In the same post, Trump congratulated Sen. John Thune of South Dakota on winning another term as Senate Republican leader. House Republicans picked Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to lead their conference in the next Congress.
Trump’s message to Senate Republicans was clear: the voter ID fight and the filibuster were the missed opportunities, and he isn’t letting them forget it.
Reporting by The Hill and NBC News.