Controversial voter ID bill to be taken up by Senate after Trump threats
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
The voter ID bill, would require proof of US citizenship for new voters, could be taken up by the Senate as early as today.
The Save America act is a rebranded name for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility act, or the Save act, a bill that has been circulating through Congress in some version for more than two years.
The US House passed the bill earlier this year, but it faces steep odds in the Senate, where it will need 60 votes to move forward because of the filibuster rule. Republican senators face heavy lobbying to lift the filibuster to advance the act.
Democrats are uniformly opposed to the legislation and expected to block its passage through the Senate. They say the legislation would disenfranchise millions of American voters who don’t have birth certificates or other documents readily available – both Republicans and Democrats who would be newly registering to vote.
The bill would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register and to present approved identification when they go to the polls, among other new rules that Trump and his most loyal supporters are pushing as part of an effort to assert more federal control over elections.
Federal law already requires that voters in national elections be US citizens. But the legislation would lay out strict new requirements for voters to prove their status. Last week, Trump threatened not to sign any bills until Congress approves the legislation.
“All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote,” the US president said during remarks on Monday at a Republican event in Miami. “No mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.”
The bill also directs states to turn voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security for citizenship verification. The justice department has sought access to voter rolls in many states, including filing lawsuits in some.
Voting rights advocates have said the bill would effectively prevent millions of Americans from voting – only about half of people have a valid US passport, and other documents, such as birth certificates, may not match up with people’s names. They have called attention to impacts on married women who changed their names whose documents may not be updated, saying the act could cause additional hurdles to voting for them.
In other developments:
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Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, denied that he is in talks with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s real-estate pal turned chief diplomat, and accused the US of leaking false claims that the two are in direct contact to calm panicked markets.
-
After Trump claimed that he had spoken to a former US president who told him that he approved of his attack on Iran, all four living former presidents denied having spoken with Trump about Iran.
-
Trump publicly revealed details about a Republican congressman’s “terminal” diagnosis that could have left him “dead by June”, prompting Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, to say: “That wasn’t public.”
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The appointment of a controversial slate of vaccine advisers by Robert F Kennedy Jr likely violated federal law, a federal judge ruled, and all votes taken by the committee over the past year have been stayed.
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Gregory Bovino, the US border patrol chief and frequent Fox News guest who was the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts until the killing of two protesters in Minneapolis by federal agents, said he will retire within weeks.
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Trump, who once mocked the gestures of a New York Times reporter with a congenital condition that limits his ability to move his joints, claimed that the governor of California’s dyslexia means that he is “dumb”.
Key events
Trump vows political retribution for lawmakers who vote against voter ID bill
Ahead of the Senate taking up a debate on the Save America act, Donald Trump took to social media to rally lawmakers to get the legislation passed.
A reminder that the president has threatened to not sign any further bills under the sweeping voter ID bill makes its way to his desk.
A short while ago Trump insisted that the Save America act is “one of the most IMPORTANT & CONSEQUENTIAL pieces of legislation in the history of Congress” in a post on Truth Social.
He has claimed, baselessly, that undocumented citizens are voting in droves in federal elections, which experts say is exceedingly rare. The president is also pushing for an amended version of the bill that includes, among other items, a ban on mail-in ballots and bans on transgender people participating in women’s sports and gender-affirming surgeries for minors. If this version were to pass in the Senate – which is unlikely – it would also have to go back to the House.
The current bill has already failed in the upper chamber, and is facing an uphill battle in the coming days that Senate majority leader John Thune must navigate in order to appease Trump.
“Only sick, demented, or deranged people in the House or Senate could vote against THE SAVE AMERICA ACT. If they do, each one of these points, separately, will be used against the user in his/her political campaign for office,” the president wrote. “A guaranteed loss!”
He ended his post with an all-caps promise: “I WILL NEVER (EVER!) ENDORSE ANYONE WHO VOTES AGAINST “SAVE AMERICA!!!”
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog.
Earlier they reported the news that Israel said it killed the Iranian national security chief, Ali Larijani, in overnight strikes. If their claim is confirmed it would make Larijanj the most senior Iranian figure to be assassinated since the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli war.
Notably, Iran has not confirmed Larijani’s death. There are reports that he could only be injured. We’ll also be listening to hear what information Donald Trump has when we hear from him later.
Donald Trump is in Washington today. On St Patrick’s day, we’ll hear from the president when he welcomes the taoiseach of Ireland, Micheál Martin, to the White House for a bilateral meeting at 11am. Trump and Martin will then head to Capitol Hill at 12.10pm ET for annual Friends of Ireland luncheon.
After policy meetings, Trump will then greet the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, Emma Little-Pengelly, at 5pm ET. Along with Martin, they’ll take part in the annual Shamrock Bowl presentation in the East Room, a tradition dating back more than 70 years. Of note, Norther Ireland’s other leader, first minister Michelle O’Neill is boycotting the day’s meeting and celebrations, to protest the Trump administration’s stance on the war in Gaza.
Trump relied on unverified intelligence to blame Iran for deadly school strike
Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump’s attempt to blame Iran for the deadly strike on an elementary school stemmed from an early US intelligence assessment that initially suggested the missile was Iranian but was almost immediately dismissed, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The CIA initially told the president that they did not believe the missile that struck the school was a munition used by the US because the fins appeared to be positioned too low for it to be a Tomahawk cruise missile.
Within 24 hours, the CIA realized that early assessment had been wrong after it became clear from additional videos, taken at other angles, that the missile was in fact a Tomahawk, the people said on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.
But Trump had already settled on the explanation that Iran was responsible for the strike before he raised it to reporters on Air Force One last Saturday, even as the defense secretary Pete Hegseth was more cautious and said only the matter was under investigation.
Trump repeated his position at a news conference the following day. While he appeared to accept the missile that hit the school was a Tomahawk – a missile used only by the US and a handful of allies including the UK, Japan and Australia – he suggested it belonged to Iran.
It was not clear when Trump was briefed about the updated intelligence findings but former intelligence officials faulted both Trump and the briefers.
Illinois heads to elect next senator and five congressional district candidates
Rachel Leingang
Illinois voters on Tuesday will decide between a crowded field of Democratic candidates vying to be the state’s next senator as the midwestern state also nominates candidates for five open congressional seats.
Longtime Illinois senator Dick Durbin’s retirement leaves a competitive race that includes two US representatives and the lieutenant governor vying to replace him, with massive infusions of money coming to the candidates from outside groups, including donors affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), that are spending millions to sway voters.
The representatives running for Senate are leaving open contests for their seats, and other sitting Democratic representatives decided not to run for reelection. Among the contenders are seasoned politicians, former lawmakers seeking comebacks and progressive upstarts.
The open Senate and House seats in Democratic-leaning districts mean the primaries will likely decide who wins in the November general election. And because the state is reliably blue, the winners could be in office for long careers, like Durbin has been for over 29 years.
State-level races, including the governorship, are also on Tuesday’s ballot, with JB Pritzker running unopposed for a third term.
What does Trump’s restrictive voting bill include – and does it have a chance of becoming law?
Rachel Leingang
Donald Trump has vowed that he will not sign any other legislation until Republicans’ massive voting bill, the Save America act, is passed. The bill would upend voting for all Americans in the middle of a federal midterm election year and create costly, chaotic changes for elections workers.
The Senate is set to consider the legislation next week, though Senate leaders say they don’t have the votes to get over the filibuster hurdle, essentially dooming the bill for failure.
While the fate of the legislation remains unclear, the damage may already be done. If it doesn’t pass, the talking points surrounding it will play into false election narratives for Trump and his allies, giving fodder for ongoing conspiracies about stolen elections.
The Save America act is a rebranded and expanded version of last year’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (Save) act, which passed in the US House but didn’t get a vote in the Senate. This year’s version includes expansive documentary proof of citizenship requirements and criminal liability for election officials from the initial Save act, in addition to a very strict voter ID requirement for casting a ballot and a provision that requires states to regularly turn their voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security.
Every voter would be affected by the Save America act, said Xavier Persad, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, “regardless of political affiliation, all across the country”. It could disenfranchise potentially tens of millions of valid US voters, he said, as people would face more barriers to voting at every step of the process.
“It is a sweeping effort to solve a problem that doesn’t exist that would require a vast, expensive new bureaucracy to be built in a short few months before a major election,” said David Becker, director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”
Changing the rules in the middle of the midterms, with primary elections already passed or underway in many states, would cause “absolute chaos”, said Gréta Bedekovics, director of democracy policy at the Center for American Progress.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this would disenfranchise people,” she said.
Here’s what the bill includes, and its prospects for passage:
Controversial voter ID bill to be taken up by Senate after Trump threats
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
The voter ID bill, would require proof of US citizenship for new voters, could be taken up by the Senate as early as today.
The Save America act is a rebranded name for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility act, or the Save act, a bill that has been circulating through Congress in some version for more than two years.
The US House passed the bill earlier this year, but it faces steep odds in the Senate, where it will need 60 votes to move forward because of the filibuster rule. Republican senators face heavy lobbying to lift the filibuster to advance the act.
Democrats are uniformly opposed to the legislation and expected to block its passage through the Senate. They say the legislation would disenfranchise millions of American voters who don’t have birth certificates or other documents readily available – both Republicans and Democrats who would be newly registering to vote.
The bill would require voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register and to present approved identification when they go to the polls, among other new rules that Trump and his most loyal supporters are pushing as part of an effort to assert more federal control over elections.
Federal law already requires that voters in national elections be US citizens. But the legislation would lay out strict new requirements for voters to prove their status. Last week, Trump threatened not to sign any bills until Congress approves the legislation.
“All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote,” the US president said during remarks on Monday at a Republican event in Miami. “No mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, military or travel.”
The bill also directs states to turn voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security for citizenship verification. The justice department has sought access to voter rolls in many states, including filing lawsuits in some.
Voting rights advocates have said the bill would effectively prevent millions of Americans from voting – only about half of people have a valid US passport, and other documents, such as birth certificates, may not match up with people’s names. They have called attention to impacts on married women who changed their names whose documents may not be updated, saying the act could cause additional hurdles to voting for them.
In other developments:
-
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, denied that he is in talks with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s real-estate pal turned chief diplomat, and accused the US of leaking false claims that the two are in direct contact to calm panicked markets.
-
After Trump claimed that he had spoken to a former US president who told him that he approved of his attack on Iran, all four living former presidents denied having spoken with Trump about Iran.
-
Trump publicly revealed details about a Republican congressman’s “terminal” diagnosis that could have left him “dead by June”, prompting Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, to say: “That wasn’t public.”
-
The appointment of a controversial slate of vaccine advisers by Robert F Kennedy Jr likely violated federal law, a federal judge ruled, and all votes taken by the committee over the past year have been stayed.
-
Gregory Bovino, the US border patrol chief and frequent Fox News guest who was the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts until the killing of two protesters in Minneapolis by federal agents, said he will retire within weeks.
-
Trump, who once mocked the gestures of a New York Times reporter with a congenital condition that limits his ability to move his joints, claimed that the governor of California’s dyslexia means that he is “dumb”.
