'It can’t save Republicans': WSJ parts with Trump on this key issue

One of the most influential conservative newspapers in America is urging President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans to abandon the SAVE America Act.

“The decentralized nature of American elections is a source of resilience, and Republicans rightly opposed President Biden’s attempt to federalize voting rules on the lax California model,” wrote The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Tuesday. “Have they given up federalist principle? If 51 Senate votes are all it takes to limit mail ballots across the country and require voter ID, Democrats next time will use 51 votes to mandate ballot harvesting and ban voter ID.”

The Journal also spoke out against doing away with the filibuster in order to ram the bill through against Democratic last-resort resistance.

“That’s to say nothing of what else progressives have in mind if Republicans do them the favor of launching a pre-emptive strike on the filibuster,” the Journal pointed out. “Mr. Schumer might make new states out of Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, meaning four new Democratic Senators. He might add Justices to the Supreme Court. In exchange for laying the groundwork, Republicans get . . . the SAVE America Act? No thanks.”

Finally, the Journal contested Trump’s notion that “voter fraud is endemic,” pointing out that despite millions of dollars spent investigating his big claims none have been verified.

“Audits in a variety of places—Georgia, Michigan, Texas, Utah, Idaho—have found noncitizen voting and registration to be rare,” the Journal wrote. “Other states might be worse, but consider incentives: Illegal immigrants who want to stay are trying to avoid being noticed by the authorities. Green card holders have much to lose if they commit a crime. Prosecuting violators is good for deterrence, and vigilance is important.”

The Journal is not alone among prominent conservative voices to speak out against Trump’s voting restriction bill. Many Republican senators are also opposing it for various reasons. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska argued it would make voting more “daunting” than it already often is in her home state, as thousands of Alaskans are not connected to any road system.

“Under this bill, registering to vote could mean purchasing plane tickets and securing lodging and transportation, at a personal cost of hundreds to thousands of dollars,” Murkowski argued in a February editorial. Her North Carolina colleague, Sen. Thom Tillis, said in a similar statement that “I’m content with the safety and security of our elections” in his states, while Montana Sen. Steve Daines said that “the total ban” on mail-in voting is “a problem” for him. West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito told the Journal she opposed the bill as it would be “problematic because a lot of people use mail in voting, and a lot of them are in rural areas such as mine.” Maine Sen. Susan Collins, while supporting the bill, will not back Trump’s attempts to force it through by eliminating the filibuster.

“The filibuster is an important protection for the rights of the minority party that requires senators to work together in the best interest of the country,” Collins told the Journal.

In addition to conservative senators, at least one conservative historian is also alarmed by the SAVE America Act. Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in February, Robert Kagan said he fears there will not be free and fair elections in 2026 or 2026 because Trump will refuse to relinquish power to the Democrats.

“I am worried, as I have said and others have been pointing out, about whether we will even have free and fair elections in 2026, let alone in 2028,” Kagan told Amanpour. “I think Trump has a plan to disrupt those elections, and I don't think he's willing to allow Democrats to take control of one or both houses as could happen in a free election.”

Meanwhile George F. Will, a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan and Washington Post columnist, wrote in February that Trump’s repeated lie that he actually won the 2020 election is part of a deeper and dangerous mass dishonesty among his voting base.

“Donald Trump’s belief in widespread fraud in the casting and counting of 2020 ballots is entailed by his belief that it is theoretically impossible for him to lose at anything,” Will explained. “His certitude infects millions of Americans, some of whom think it inconceivable that he could ever be mistaken. Others doubt that anyone could win the presidency while obsessing about a complex conspiracy for which there is no evidence.”

The columnist added that “two former Republican senators, three former federal appellate judges, a former Republican solicitor general, and two Republican election law specialists” managed to analyze “all 187 counts in the 64 court challenges filed in multiple states by Trump and his supporters. Twenty cases were dismissed before hearings on their merits, 14 were voluntarily dismissed by Trump and his supporters before hearings. Of the 30 that reached hearings on the merits, Trump’s side prevailed in only one, Pennsylvania, involving far too few votes to change the state’s result.”

Will added, “Trump’s batting average? .016. In Arizona, the most exhaustively scrutinized state, a private firm selected by Trump’s advocates confirmed Trump’s loss, finding 99 additional Biden votes and 261 fewer Trump votes.” Therefore he wrote of Trump, “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”