President Donald Trump made it crystal clear: get the SAVE America Act passed before senators pack their bags for a five-week summer vacation.
Republicans couldn’t do it. And one Fox News host had some pointed questions about why.
Joey Jones went after US Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) on The Big Weekend Show, demanding a straight answer about why the GOP keeps letting this slip through its fingers.
Jones Puts the Blame Where It Belongs
Jones told Marshall flatly that Republican senators heading off to vacation after failing to advance the SAVE America Act was unacceptable, and that the obstruction wasn’t coming from Democrats. “It’s not Democrats that’s stopping the SAVE America Act from getting voted on and passing, it’s your Republican colleagues,” Jones said during the exchange.
He pressed Marshall to be “honest and truthful” about whether the legislation could ever become law without major changes. Marshall admitted it was an “uphill battle,” then spent a moment defending his fellow Republican senators.
Jones wasn’t buying the defense. He pointed out that those senators should have to answer for voting against a measure supported by roughly 80% of Americans.
That number isn’t a talking point. A 2025 Pew survey found 71% of Democrat voters and 95% of Republicans support voter ID. The political will among ordinary Americans is not the problem here.
The Four Republicans Blocking Election Integrity
The senators Jones had in mind were Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Thom Tillis (R-NC), all of whom have repeatedly joined Democrats to block the SAVE Act.
In a vote on an amendment offered by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the measure failed 48-50, meaning Republicans couldn’t even muster a simple majority, let alone the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle. Collins, Murkowski, McConnell, and Tillis voted with every Democrat to kill it.
And that wasn’t the first time. The same four Republican senators blocked the first attempt as well, which had been sponsored by Senator John Kennedy.
Senator Tillis has gone so far as to declare the SAVE America Act “dead” on Capitol Hill, claiming there is not enough time to change election laws before the midterms. That’s a convenient position for someone who voted to kill the bill twice.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has publicly claimed support for the Trump agenda, has used the procedural dynamics of the chamber as cover for the bill’s repeated failures. Thune hadn’t been enthusiastic about another reconciliation attempt, though that posture appeared to soften recently when he said, “I think at some point, we’re going to need to do another reconciliation bill.” That’s a long way from leadership.
Two dozen House Republicans, led by Representative Randy Fine (R-FL), put Thune on notice, vowing to oppose any Senate bill until the SAVE America Act clears the upper chamber.
“Continuing the same old kabuki shows is unacceptable, and the American people deserve better,” Fine said in a statement.
What This Is Really About
The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act is not a complicated concept. It requires voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time of voting. That’s it. Forty-nine other countries require some form of voter ID. The United States, thanks to four Republican senators, apparently cannot manage it.
Marshall has been vocal about why the bill matters to him personally. He has said if there is one bill he would like to see passed in his Senate career, this would be it, telling Kansas reporters, “I think election integrity is so important to the future of the republic.”
But wanting something and delivering it are two different things. Marshall acknowledged the 60-vote threshold and asked why ten Democrats won’t cross the aisle when 70% of their own voters support voter ID, adding that Republicans “would probably have 51 Republican votes in favor of the SAVE Act right now” but that “there are a couple of no’s for sure, unfortunately.”
And there’s the admission that matters. Republicans can’t even hold their own conference together on a bill supported by eight in ten Americans.
The filibuster is the excuse establishment Republicans reach for when they want to explain away failures they’d rather not own. Democrats will eliminate the filibuster the first chance they get, and when they do, they’ll move to pack the Supreme Court, grant amnesty to illegal aliens, and lock in a permanent electoral advantage. Republicans who cling to the filibuster as a shield are handing their opponents the very weapon that will be used against them. The SAVE America Act is a perfect example of what unilateral disarmament looks like in practice.
There are real, documented concerns about the integrity of American elections. Millions of Americans still have serious questions about last-minute rule changes made under the cover of COVID in 2020, private money flooding into election offices, and the coordinated suppression of major news stories by Big Tech in the weeks before that election. The SAVE America Act is a commonsense step toward restoring confidence that only American citizens decide American elections. Blocking it is not a principled stand. It’s an abdication.
Trump pushed hard to get this done before the recess. He backed the legislation and insisted it get passed heading into the 2026 midterms. His own party walked out the door anyway.
And the senators who blocked it, Collins, Murkowski, McConnell, and Tillis, don’t represent some thoughtful institutional conscience. They represent the same establishment wing that has spent years trying to sand down the edges of the America First agenda while maintaining just enough cover to avoid a direct confrontation with Trump voters.
Jones was right to push. Marshall was right that it’s an uphill battle. The question is whether Senate Republicans are willing to fight the battle or just talk about it on television before heading to the beach.
Sources: Mediaite; Marshall.senate.gov; Fox News; The Hill; Newsweek; Townhall; RedState; Congress.gov