Trump unloads after Supreme Court upholds late mail-in ballots in Mississippi
Trump slams Supreme Court ruling allowing late mail-in ballots, demands Congress pass the SAVE Act requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship.
President Donald Trump on Monday blasted a Supreme Court opinion upholding a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots received up to five days after Election Day to be counted.
The ruling in Watson v. RNC pitted Trump against some of the justices he appointed and dealt a blow to his push for stricter election rules by upholding Mississippi's practice of counting late-arriving mail-in ballots. The decision also prompted a rebuke from one of the Republican senators Trump singled out in a scathing response, after the senator noted he already supports legislation requiring ballots to be received by Election Day.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump nominee, rebuked Republicans’ arguments in the case, writing that as long as Election Day is the statutorily required date on which a vote is submitted and that "election-day statutes do not set a deadline for ballot receipt."
Trump fired back hours later on Truth Social, calling the case a "tremendous loss" for voters’ rights and saying the ruling means Congress must moot it immediately by passing the SAVE America Act.
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The bill, led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, in the House and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., in the Senate, would require nationwide voter ID and essentially ban no-excuse mail-in balloting.
"It is more important than ever to pass the SAVE America Act," he said.
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"There is no excuse for a politician, or otherwise, to be against the above three requirements," he said, citing voter-ID, proof-of-citizenship, and only distributing mail-in ballots to military members, the sick and disabled and those voters traveling away from their home precinct on Election Day.
"There is only one reason to oppose — cheating," he said, adding that the House approved the SAVE Act in three different iterations.
"In a time when there is a powerful Communist movement taking place in our country, one more dangerous than World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or Sept. 11, all Dumocrats (sic) and our five Republican Senate Hold Outs, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, and Mitch McConnell must vote to save our country."
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Fox News Digital reached out to Senate leaders John Thune, R-S.D., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., as well as each of the senators Trump mentioned.
Cassidy incredulously replied that the president may need to fact-check his missive, as the Louisiana Republican is a co-sponsor of the SAVE Act.
"I don’t know which staffer misled you, but thank you for your attention to this matter," Cassidy said, mimicking Trump’s signature statement-closer.
Trump and Cassidy have sparred in other respects, but the two appear in agreement on the bill’s contents. However, Cassidy added that it is "irresponsible" to postpone a now-paused Housing bill signing until the SAVE Act is passed because people deserve "relief… for the high cost of housing."
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Thune’s office declined further comment, while McConnell’s acknowledged receipt and said the former majority leader would share any comment if he has one in the interim.
While Trump grouped all Democrats in opposition, one maverick member of the minority has signaled he would support a pared-down version that would require voter ID.
"If the GOP wants real reform over a show vote––put out a clean, standalone bill and I’m AYE," Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said in a recent statement.
"Keep it basic: PHOTO ID to vote. Stop turning this into a Christmas list and attacking vote-by-mail."
If the Senate were to approve the House-passed version of the SAVE Act, it could upend or at least moot parts of the Supreme Court’s Watson decision.
Calls for the SAVE America Act’s passage mounted in the weeks before the decision as critics pointed to California’s ballot tabulation process after actor Spencer Pratt was overtaken by socialist Councilwoman Nithya Raman, D-Los Feliz, and eliminated from the runoff. Critics also cited the slow pace at which Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton were declared general election candidates for governor after a crowded primary.
