Trump and Thune Clash Over SAVE America Act
The long-simmering rigidity between President Trump and Senate Republicans over a stalled voting restriction invoice intensified on Thursday, after the president’s apology stated that Mr. Trump’s “patience is running out” with Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the bulk chief, for failing to push it by means of.
Mr. Thune, who has confronted criticism from Mr. Trump and his far-right allies for months, rapidly fired again, telling reporters that if the White House needed to see motion on the federal elections overhaul — which has neither the bulk it might have to cross nor the 60 votes wanted to beat a filibuster — somebody within the president’s orbit ought to make a extra concerted effort to garner the mandatory help to advance it.
“Maybe she or someone else ought to get on the phone and get the votes,” Mr. Thune stated on the Capitol, referring to Karoline Leavitt, the consultant who had instructed reporters of Mr. Trump’s dwindling persistence.
“It’s 50 around here,” Mr. Thune added, referring to the minimal variety of votes Republicans have to cross laws. “And, so, instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats. And if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone. Let’s get them to ‘yes.’ ”
The back-and-forth was the newest flare-up of an extraordinary intraparty fight over the elections measure, the SAVE America Actwhich Mr. Trump has referred to as his high precedence.
With the midterm elections approaching in November, Republicans have been eager to present a unified front. Instead, the president’s intense focus on the bill has divided his party, prompting repeated squabbling that has threatened the GOP’s ability to pass legislation despite its majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“I don’t know who it was that sold the president on this idea that this was attainable,” said Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger. “But it’s creating a circular firing squad for Republicans, and here we are — what, 103 days before the midterm elections? — and this is not a great place for us.”
The escalating battle will likely complicate the Senate’s final two weeks before their August recess. Mr. Thune already faced a difficult to-do list, laid at his feet by House Republicans who departed Washington for their five-week break on Thursday after having pushed through several bills that face dim prospects in the Senate.
Before senators from Washington, Republicans are hoping to confirm Mr. Trump’s picks for director of national intelligence and attorney general. The House also sent over a stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown at the end of September. And many Republican senators are also hoping to find a way to provide additional military funding for the war in Iran. But with Democrats opposed to both of those measures, Senate Republicans are unlikely to be able to move either.
Mr. Trump’s proposed election overhaul would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, impose a nationwide voter identification requirement and severely limit voting by mail.
With Democrats uniformly opposed, Mr. Trump has for months tried to cow Republican senators into eliminating or weakening the filibuster so they can ram the bill through with a simple majority vote.
“It’s like, the Senate is a place you send things when you want them to die,” Mr. Trump said at an event in Georgia on Wednesday. “We can’t do this — we’re not going to take this any longer, we’re not going to take it. I’m trying to be nice.”
Then, he directed his attention to Mr. Thune.
“Everybody call John Thune at the Senate,” Mr. Trump told a crowd of supporters. “He’s the leader of the Republican Party, and tell him to get this stuff approved.”
But a Republican majority does not exist in the Senate to do what the president wants. Many GOP senators oppose changing the filibuster rules, and a few objects to provisions of the voting bill itself, including the changes to mail-in voting used widely throughout the country, particularly in right-leaning rural areas.
“We just don’t have the votes, and so there’s nothing that Senator Thune can do to change that,” Mr. Cornyn told reporters on Thursday.
However, a far-right faction of House Republicans has added to the stress, threatening to dam laws and then efficiently demanding that Speaker Mike Johnson append a version of the SAVE America Act to each main invoice it sends to the Senate. This week, they adopted a $95 billion budget plan to fund the warfare with Iran that may additionally incentivize states to impose Mr. Trump’s election restrictions.
Mr. Thune has been skeptical that Senate Republicans have enough votes to pass the budget plan, and he has repeatedly maintained that there is not enough support among Senate Republicans to push through the SAVE Act.
Some of that is Mr. Trump’s own doing. Among the Republicans who oppose either the elections overhaul or eliminating the filibuster are several senators whom he has frequently targeted with his social media broadsides, including Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; Susan Collins of Maine, who is in a tough re-election fight; and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Mr. Tillis, who opted not to run for re-election this year, has repeatedly called efforts to pass the SAVE America Act a waste of time. On Thursday, he reiterated his support for Mr. Thune. “Anybody in the White House who thinks he’s not a good leader isn’t qualified for their job,” he told reporters.
Two other senators, Mr. Cornyn and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, lost their re-election bids after Mr. Trump endorsed challengers, leaving them with little incentive to wholeheartedly back their priorities at the expense of the Senate’s institutional power.
After Mr. Trump went after the Senate and Mr. Thune at his rally this week, his team amplified the remarks, and Ms. Leavitt was asked at a briefing on Thursday whether the president had lost patience with the majority leader.
“His patience is running out,” Ms. Leavitt said of Mr. Trump. “He wants to see as much of the SAVE America passed as possible by the August recess.”
Mr. Thune was left to play down the rift. Later Thursday, I suggested he had not been offended.
“I don’t read a lot into it,” he said. “I assumed it was a query she received, and she was responding to it. It’s the character of the beast round right here.”
Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.
