One of President Donald Trump’s allies is lashing out at the White House after press secretary Karoline Leavitt bashed GOP senators for inaction on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility America Act (SAVE America Act).
According to Leavitt, President Donald Trump’s “patience is running out.” She explained at her Thursday press conference that the president wants his voter restrictions passed before the lawmakers leave for the August recess.
“The House did its job,” said Leavitt. “The Senate needs to do its job, too.”
Ousted Republican Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) fired back at Leavitt, saying that the president’s demands have created a “circular firing squad for Republicans” ahead of the midterms, wrote Politico bureau chief Burgess Everett.
“We just don’t have the votes, and so there’s nothing that Senator Thune can do to change that. This idea that he can just command members of the Republican Conference to get in line is just a fantasy, so I think it’s unfair,” added Cornyn.
“I don’t know who it was that sold the president on this idea that this was attainable, 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 to be.”
Cornyn was ousted by his state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, in a Republican primary where Trump endorsed Cornyn’s opponent.
His statements come after Republican Senate Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) lashed out at Leavitt for causing more problems for the caucus with her press conference.
Thune suggested that if the White House wants to see a vote on the bill, it should do the work to pass the bill or go after Democrats filibustering it.
The closest the Republicans have come is the House passing a budget bill to fund the war in Iran and attaching financial incentives for enacting certain provisions of the SAVE America Act. The House bill would essentially pay states from a $10 billion fund if it complies with some of the pieces of the law.
A budget bill can pass the Senate without needing the 60-vote filibuster threshold, so the measure would only need a majority. The funding bill would not, however, pass the SAVE America Act into law.
As the voting rights site Democracy Docket explained on Thursday, “Despite Republican control of the Senate, it is unlikely that Trump will see any version of SAVE enacted ahead of the midterms.”