Senate Republicans are taking closed-door conversations online to snipe at one another over stalled voter ID and citizenship verification legislation. President Donald Trump wants Republicans to pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, but the political reality in the Senate, albeit through extreme measures that don't have unified support among the Senate GOP, makes passage unlikely. Still, that has not stopped Trump, supporters online, and key proponents of the legislation in the Senate from pushing the message that the SAVE America Act can pass, but only if Republicans have the guts to do it.That avenue would be through the "talking filibuster," which proponents say would grind down Democrats’ resistance and ultimately lead to the SAVE America Act passing at a simple majority threshold.'IT'S A MESS': GOP TURNS ON HOUSE CONSERVATIVES AS VOTER ID BLOCKADE STALLS TRUMP'S AGENDADiscourse over the SAVE America Act, and the reality that it can't pass in the Senate, is pitting Republican against Republican online.(Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.
via Getty Images)Opponents warn that doing so would dominate the Senate’s most valuable commodity — floor time — and allow Democrats to control the tempo of the upper chamber.And, there’s fear that Republicans wouldn’t stay unified to kill Democratic amendments on a variety of issues. Those dueling positions have caused clashes typically kept behind closed doors in the Senate to manifest on social media, notably between Sens.
Mike Lee, R-Utah, and John Cornyn, R-Texas. "There is not [a] single instance in the history of the United States Senate where a ‘talking filibuster’ has resulted in a favorable outcome for the proponent," Cornyn said on X while sharing a memo that included numerous "issues" with launching a talking filibuster.Among those were the arguments that it would make campaigning more difficult because of attendance requirements,...