WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s demand to nationalize elections and gut mail-in voting across the country ahead of the November midterm elections has become a huge political problem for Senate Republicans, who are struggling to explain to angry Trump supporters they lack the votes to get it done.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) ― facing weeks of intense pressure from conservatives to blow up the Senate’s filibuster ― made explicitly clear there’s not enough support among Senate Republicans to pass the bill without Democratic votes.
“The votes aren’t there, one, to nuke the filibuster, and the votes aren’t there for a talking filibuster,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol. “I’m the person who has to deliver sometimes the not-so-good news that the math doesn’t add up…Those are the facts. There’s no getting around it.”
Outside of Congress, right-wing influencers have said failure to pass the bill will have near-apocalyptic consequences, despite voter fraud being a vanishingly rare problem.
“Democracy without secure elections is not democracy at all,” former White House aide Elon Musk said Monday on X.
