Thune schedules doomed SAVE America Act vote, dashing MAGA hopes for filibuster fight

Senate GOP leaders are looking to put the SAVE America Act debate behind them next week by scheduling it for a doomed vote — and MAGA is steaming mad.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Tuesday that he intended to bring the documentary proof of citizenship and voter ID bill to a vote sometime next week. But he said he wouldn’t do what President Donald Trump and anti-voting leaders are demanding: use a procedural maneuver to get around a Democratic filibuster and allow the bill’s passage by a simple majority.

Thune said there isn’t enough Republican support for attempting to outlast the legislation’s Democratic opponents during a “talking filibuster.”

“We don’t have the votes, either to proceed [to] a talking filibuster nor to sustain one if we got on one,” Thune said at a leadership press conference Tuesday. “That’s just a function of math. There isn’t anything I can do about that.” 

Asked if Trump understood that, Thune said he had tried to tell him. 

“We’ve conveyed that to him. It’s important for everybody to understand this is about the votes, it’s about the math,” Thune said. “For better or for worse, I’m the one who has to be the clear-eyed realist here.”

“We’re gonna have the fight on the floor. We’re going to vote on this.” Thune added, making it clear that he would present the SAVE America Act as a messaging bill ahead of the November midterms. “I can guarantee the debate, I can guarantee the vote, I just can’t guarantee an outcome.” 

The news of Thune’s planned capitulation was met harshly by right-wing activists online. Cleta Mitchell, founder of the Election Integrity Network, urged her followers on X to call Thune’s office. 

“He says that citizens calling his office asking for a talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act are ‘paid influencers’.” Mitchell wrote. “Go influence him.”

Thune previously told reporters that his staff haven’t been able to find a single piece of legislation passed over a talking filibuster. In all other cases since the practice began, including the famous 60-day filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, cloture was inevitably invoked before voting for passage. 

Thune has faced ever-increasing pressure from Trump and his MAGA allies to attempt a talking filibuster. But that practice would allow Democrats, who have vowed to fight the measure, to occupy the upper chamber’s business for months — likely even past the midterm elections — and block any votes on other legislation or nominations. Thune and other Republicans have said they want to work on funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a housing affordability bill, a farm bill, cryptocurrency legislation and other measures before facing voters this fall. 

In addition to the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) as DHS Secretary, more than 60 executive nominees are currently awaiting a Senate vote and there are nearly 40 judicial vacancies to be filled.  

In addition to the SAVE America Act’s current citizenship and identification provisions, Trump recently urged Republicans to add a ban on universal mail-in ballots, a ban on trans athletes in women’s sports and a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Some of those measures — particularly the restrictions on mail-in ballots — could cost the bill Republican support. 

“I don’t want the federal government telling me that I can’t have mail-in voting or absentee ballot voting,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters Monday. 

The bill’s backers say it’s needed to prevent noncitizens from voting, even though there is no evidence of noncitizens intentionally casting ballots in significant numbers. But opponents note that millions of voters lack easy access to a passport or birth certificate, needed to show documentary proof of citizenship at registration.