Speaker Johnson and Trump Allies Say Killing Their Election Year Voter ID Bill Would Doom Democracy
Speaker Johnson and Trump Allies Say Killing Their Election Year Voter ID Bill Would Doom Democracy
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act bars non-citizens from voting – which is already illegal
WASHINGTON – Several former Trump administration aides stood by House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday as he and congressional Republicans from both chambers made their case for keeping non-citizens from voting in the 2024 election.
“We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it's not been something that is easily provable,” Johnson, who voted to overturn the 2020 election results and did not substantiate these latest claims, said during a press conference promoting a GOP-backed proposal.
The bill, sponsored in their respective chambers by House Freedom Caucus Member Chip Roy of Texas and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, reinforces current law by requiring verification that those casting ballots in presidential and federal elections are in fact eligible to vote.
Non-citizens are already prohibited from voting in said races. And a recent Washington Post analysis found little evidence to support Republicans’ baseless claims of any rampant abuse.
But with national attention focused on the southern U.S. border and their embattled former boss tied up in court hearing salacious details about his alleged tryst with porn star Stormy Daniels, Trump surrogates sprung at the chance to paint incumbent President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats as the real existential threats.
“Democracy in America is under attack,” Trump advisor Stephen Miller said during his turn at the mics.
The architect of the last administration’s polarizing immigration policies rolled on from there, offering a Trump-like airing of grievances against alleged “censorship of conservative speech,” the “weaponization of law enforcement,” religious persecution, and the various criminal cases his twice-impeached former boss remains caught up in.
“These things are all combined and efforts to end our Republican form of government,” railed Miller, who has spent the intervening years legally needling the Biden administration from MAGA-aligned nonprofit group the America First Legal Foundation, while standing just steps from the House chamber.
In his estimation, anyone who opposes this legislation is an enemy of the state.
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