Kentucky Rep. James Comer put his fellow Republicans on blast for failing to pass legislation pushed by President Donald Trump.
Appearing on Fox News’ The Big Weekend Show on Sunday, Comer was asked by co-host Joey Jones for an update on the SAVE America Act, a bill that would make it mandatory to present a valid ID and proof of citizenship to vote in elections. Voting is already limited to citizens, and critics say that requiring voters to present ID could risk disenfranchising the 21 million Americans who lack easy access to a passport or birth certificate.
The act has faced several setbacks in the Senate, most recently after Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis, and Mitch McConnell joined Democrats in voting against it last month.
The issue got so heated that some Republicans in the House, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, took issue with their counterparts in the Senate for refusing to send the bill to Trump’s desk, and shut down the floor in protest last week.
The version of the act that narrowly passed the House in February did not include several of the provisions President Trump has sought to add, including a crackdown on mail-in voting, as well as unrelated amendments that included a ban on transgender people participating in women’s sports, and a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors.
On Fox on Sunday, Trump loyalist Comer chastised his counterparts in the Senate for failing to support the president’s agenda and ensure the bill is passed, telling the Fox News panel that his fellow Republicans are weak.
“All I’m hearing from Senate leadership is they do not have the votes,” Comer said.
“Some of these Republicans say, ‘We can’t vote for that, because we could lose our elections,‘” he continued. “Are you that weak? That’s my question to any Republican senator... are you that weak to where if you vote for a valid ID to be shown to vote, you’re gonna get beat in your home state?”
“If you’re that weak, you don’t need to be a United States senator,” Comer told the panel. “I hope that the Senate will get it together and figure out something that we can pass to give the American people confidence in the integrity of their elections.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday that he plans to work quickly to advance the legislation through the budget reconciliation process once lawmakers return from celebrating the Fourth of July.
“I just decided it was best to send everybody home to go celebrate July Fourth in their districts,” Johnson told Fox News. “We’ll come back, gather everybody together. The big urgency is to get SAVE America passed. The president has that as a top priority, and so do I.”
The president made clear just how high a priority he considers the legislation to be in a March Truth Social rant in which he railed against the “Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats” and urged Republicans not to make any deals with them until they pass the SAVE America Act.
He also urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune to “clearly identify those few ‘Republicans’ that are voting against AMERICA,” warning, “They will never be elected again!”
Frustrated by the lack of movement on the SAVE America Act, Trump has lashed out at Congress, holding up an intelligence nomination and declining to sign a bipartisan housing bill, calling it a “yawn.”
He has continued to advocate for the SAVE America Act, telling attendees at the National Mall for his Fourth of July celebration, “America is back, and we want to keep America great, and we will do so by approving the SAVE America Act.”
