Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Trump's focus on the SAVE Act

[0:00] The Supreme Court further expands the president's authority while rejecting President Trump's [0:04] effort to restrict mail-in voting, leaving that fight to Congress. For more, we turn now to our [0:10] Politics Monday duo. That's Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter [0:14] and Tamara Keith of NPR. It's good to see you both on this very busy Monday. [0:18] Yes. [0:19] So lots of action from the Supreme Court. Among the flurry of decisions, the court rejected an [0:24] RNC, Republican National Committee, challenge and ruled that election officials may count [0:29] mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day if they're postmarked beforehand. So, [0:34] Tam, this leaves existing rules in place for now while basically setting up Congress to [0:39] legislate on this very issue. President Trump is talking about his SAVE Act. Does this ruling [0:44] from the court give his SAVE Act more momentum or does it actually lessen the urgency in some [0:49] ways? [0:50] I don't know if it lessens the urgency. The president's urgency is off the charts. It's [0:54] just not clear that his Republicans in Congress feel the same level of urgency. [0:59] Obviously, some absolutely support his SAVE America Act. But he's running into a wall in [1:05] the U.S. Senate where there are Republican senators who have concerns about some of the [1:10] provisions in his so-called SAVE America Act, which would strictly reduce the availability [1:17] of mail-in voting for people in rural areas, for instance, in Alaska, for instance, where [1:26] Senator Lisa Murkowski opposes the SAVE America Act. So, there are real issues and challenges. [1:34] Bigger picture, he is both running into a wall in Congress and also in the courts. Last week, [1:41] there are a number of rulings on his various executive orders to try to change the way people [1:46] vote. And then you get the Supreme Court ruling this week. So, a pretty significant pushback on [1:52] the president's effort to impose his ideas on the administration of elections, which the [1:59] Constitution says should be in the hands of states. [2:02] And Democrats, in the meantime, are dead set against this elections bill. They say it will [2:06] disenfranchise millions of voters. The president, to Tam's point, was in the Oval Office today [2:10] speaking in support of it. Here's some of what he said. [2:12] We're the only country in the world that does this type of mail-in ballot. There's no other [2:18] country in the world. You know why? They tried it and it was totally dishonest. And it's really [2:23] dishonest. So, we shouldn't do mail-in ballots. [2:27] So, the president there, again, speaking out against mail-in voting, he says we're the only country [2:32] in the world that allows this. That's not true. What about his other point, that it's [2:35] dishonest, that it's open to fraud? [2:37] That's right. Some states like Oregon, Colorado, have been doing, Washington state, just vote [2:43] by mail. They conduct it entirely through the mail. There's been no evidence that any of those [2:50] elections have been tampered with in any way or that the votes are illegitimate. I think what [2:55] the president really dislikes about the way that we vote in this country, or certain states [3:00] vote, is because he has been for so long making this claim that is not true, that if you vote [3:07] five, the vote by mail is not safe and it can be tampered with, that Republicans now are [3:14] going to the polls rather than sending in ballots. And Democrats are more likely to be sending [3:19] in ballots. So, what you see on election night, and this will probably happen when we're together [3:24] on election night this year, is the early vote, depending on what a state counts first, [3:29] but if they count the votes that came in that day first, it looks very red. And then the [3:37] other votes come in, the mail ballots, which now have become more Democratic. And so, the [3:43] president goes to bed seeing, oh, 35% of the vote's in, the Republicans ahead, we're going [3:48] to win this seat, wakes up in the morning, and now the Democrat won. This is not nefarious, [3:53] it's just the math. [3:55] So, he seems to have stuck in his head that mail-in voting benefits Democrats, and this [3:59] is your explanation as to why. [4:01] And it's sort of a catch-22, because the more that he says you can't trust mail-in voting, [4:08] the more likely it is that Democrats will do it, or more likely that Republicans won't. [4:14] This is what makes Republican strategists crazy, because they want to bank as many votes as [4:21] they can. And if they can get somebody to put a vote in the mail, they don't need to worry [4:26] about turning them out to vote on Election Day, when maybe it's raining or the dog's sick, [4:31] and they just forget. [4:32] Yeah. And Tam, this fight over the Save America Act has held up this landmark bipartisan housing [4:38] bill, which the president today, he dismissed as a yawn. Do we have that sound? I think [4:43] we do. We can listen to that as well. [4:45] Here's what I would like to sign. Much more than a bill that, big deal. It's a yawn. [4:51] Some people say it's wonderful. To me, compared to the Save America Act, [4:57] just about everything is a big yawn. [5:01] So, in this moment, where every election in this primary leading up to the midterm, the [5:07] primaries leading up to the midterm, has been about affordability, this would be a layup [5:11] for the president to say, let's just go ahead and sign this bill. And yet? [5:14] And yet he is stepping on his own feet and stepping on the feet of his members of Congress, [5:19] the Republicans in the House and the Senate, who worked in a bipartisan fashion to get this [5:24] through. President Trump literally called for one of the major provisions [5:29] of this bill in his State of the Union address, said, Congress, go out and do this. Congress [5:34] went out and did it. And he says, it's a yawn. You add this to other things that he has said [5:39] where, you know, he's not concerned about inflation or I'm not really focused on affordability [5:45] or what things cost. There's a larger context to all of those statements. But in campaign [5:50] ads, the larger context will be gone. And he will just be sounding dismissive of the concerns [5:57] who, like, affordability is the top issue, whether it's about housing or the price of [6:03] gas or the price of groceries or all of these things. And a lot of Republicans were very [6:08] and are very eager to be able to run on something like this housing bill. [6:12] Well, as we talk about the primaries, we've got another one coming up in Colorado. And we've [6:17] seen these progressive victories in New York and Washington State tomorrow. Tomorrow, rather, [6:23] Washington, D.C., not Washington State. Can't even read my notes here. But tomorrow's Colorado [6:28] primary will be a test because you've got Senator Michael Bennett and you've got the Congresswoman, [6:32] Diana DeGette. They're facing serious challenges from the left. What are you watching for? [6:37] Yeah. So I think there is it's it's very important to put these challenges into different buckets. [6:43] I think in some of the darkest blue state, darkest blue districts. Now, we saw it in New York City, [6:50] but we've also seen this in Philadelphia, in New Jersey and now maybe in Denver, where candidates [6:56] running as a Justice Democrat or those basically on the furthest left of the party, many motivated by [7:02] the issue of Israel, not all, but definitely is a big piece of that, or have been successful. We're going to [7:08] see tomorrow night in Denver whether that candidate to the left of longtime incumbent, Diana DeGette, will be [7:17] successful. But when we look at the governor's race between Michael Bennett and the state attorney general, [7:23] the Democrat there, that's really about who's the better fighter. And this is really at its core what the [7:30] Democratic, if you want to sort of say, what are these Democratic primaries really about? What does [7:35] it mean to be a fighter in this age? And who are you fighting for? And what are you fighting against? [7:40] In the case of in these dark blue districts, what I'm fighting against the left, the further left, [7:47] the Bernie backed candidates would say is I'm fighting against corporate oligarchy, the system, [7:52] the establishment, which can include Democrats. If you're talking about in this case, [7:58] the governor's race, it's who's fighting Trump the hardest, the state attorney general who's filing [8:04] court cases and winning court cases, or the guy who's been in Washington as one of 100. And by the [8:10] way, Democrats aren't doing anything in Washington. I'm the one, says the state attorney general, [8:16] who's really doing the hard work. And that same debate is going on in a competitive district [8:23] in Colorado between two Democrats. So this to me is going to be a fascinating question as we get to [8:30] 2027. What does it mean to be a fighter, not just with Trump still in office, but looking forward to [8:39] when Trump isn't in office? Yeah. And Tam, are you following this race out of Alaska, the two Sullivans? [8:43] This is my favorite political story. And I'll set it up. I'll set it up. So folks know what we're [8:47] talking about. So this, this judge in Alaska has ruled that Democrat Dan J. Sullivan can appear on the ballot [8:53] alongside incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan. So we've seen ballot confusion before. [8:59] I would posit though, that this is probably less of an issue in Alaska where Murkowski voters had to know [9:05] not just who she was, they had to know how to spell her name and write it in on a ballot. So I would [9:09] think that Alaska voters would be able to discern between a Dan S. Sullivan and a Dan J. Sullivan. [9:15] How do you see this? However, middle names are very different than Murkowski as a full name. And so, [9:21] you know, like it's a top four primary. So it's possible that both Dan's Sullivan, [9:27] I think that might be the plural, make it out of this primary. Certainly, I think you can get [9:32] confusion when you're trying to figure out, well, what is the middle name of the guy who I voted for [9:37] before? Also, their logos are oddly similar as well. So it, you know, it's not clear exactly what's [9:47] happening here, but the word shenanigans does come to mind. Well, and the fact that the RNC [9:51] filed a lawsuit tells you that, yes, they are concerned about voter confusion. More to come on [9:57] that front for sure. Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, thanks so much. You're welcome. You're welcome. [10:01] Support journalism you trust. Support PBS News. Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today.