President Donald Trump continues to double down on his voter fraud fixation, repeating the widely debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him and pressuring the U.S. Senate to pass the SAVE America Act as soon as possible — even if it means ditching the Senate filibuster. But according to Axios reporter Brittany Gibson, Trump’s voter fraud claims are not serving him or fellow Republicans well.
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“President Trump’s voter fraud crusade is crashing into the limits of his power ahead of November’s midterm elections,” Gibson explains in Axios. “Why it matters: Trump has made cracking down on alleged mass voter fraud a priority, but his election-related executive orders are stalled in court and his legislative fix is stuck in the Senate…. Senate Republicans have defied Trump on the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.”
Gibson continues, “Trump has retaliated by threatening not to sign any legislation without it. But Senate Republicans insist they don’t have the votes to pass it, even if they tried to gut their own rules in the process.”
The Axios reporter emphasizes that resistance to his voter fraud obsession is coming not only from GOP lawmakers, but also, from federal courts that have “stonewalled” him.
“A D.C. court, on Monday, blocked Trump’s expansion of the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database — to scan local voter files for noncitizens,” Gibson reports. “The new database created a centralized list that includes data on U.S. citizens, not just immigrants. Another district court in Boston ruled, on Wednesday, against the implementation of one of Trump’s first executive orders demanding a citizenship verification at registration. “
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Gibson adds, “The administration is expected to appeal. This could eventually escalate the cases to the Supreme Court, which recently ruled in Trump’s favor on immigration policy-related cases.”
Trump’s “defeats” in court, according to Gibson, “have raised the stakes for passing the SAVE America Act” — which he is describing as a “national emergency.”
“Instances of voter fraud are rare, but searching for cases has become a priority for the executive branch,” Gibson reports. “ICE agents and attorneys have been querying local election officials for specific voter files for ‘ongoing cases.’ They’ve obtained voter files in Webb County in Texas and Forsyth County in North Carolina. The Homeland Security Department installed election integrity activist Heather Honey, best known for questioning elections and voter rolls accuracy in Pennsylvania and Arizona, as a deputy assistant secretary. The Department of Justice is also suing multiple states to gain access to their voter rolls.”
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