Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Donald Trump’s Threat To Hold The Senate Hostage Over The SAVE Act

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor on Donald Trump's outrageous attempt to hold the Senate hostage over his voter suppression bill, the SAVE Act. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday, Donald Trump posted that he will not sign any legislation-no matter how important-until Congress sends him the SAVE Act, a beefed-up SAVE Act at that.

The SAVE Act is nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0. It is a voter suppression bill-it takes away vote by mail, it makes it harder for people to register and would require states to hand over voter rolls to election deniers at the Department of Justice.

The real damage here is not when you show up at the poll to vote and ask for I.D. It's the registration. They ask every state for their voter rolls and a Musk-inspired-DOGE-voter-ID-using AI would be used to take tens of millions of people off the voting rolls. And they're not even told. They show up at the voting place on election day. They say, "Sorry ma'am, sorry sir, you're not on the rolls." Why? Because of this DOGE thing. It is outrageous. It is Jim Crow all over again. And now he says he doesn't even want vote by mail-tell that to handicapped people. And to register, when they kick you off, you have to show up in person-only 5% do. And you have to show a passport or an original birth certificate, very hard for people to obtain. It outrageous. Outrageous.

Now Donald Trump says he will not sign any bill to lower costs, lower rent, lower groceries, until Congress passes this bill taking away millions of citizens' right to vote.

If Trump is saying he won't sign any bills until the SAVE Act is passed, then there will be total gridlock in the Congress.

On the other hand, if the SAVE Act does pass, our Democracy will be in very serious danger.

Donald Trump is saying, in effect: unless Congress helps him undermine democracy, he is prepared to hold the rest of the country hostage. This is what he does. He's a thug. He's a bully. He can't ever argue on the merits, so he threatens. And that means no bills to bring down gas prices. No bills to make groceries more affordable. No bills to increase housing. Not until the SAVE Act passes. That's what Trump is saying. Democrats will make sure that never happens.

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