A message from former President Donald Trump punctuates his disdain for a massive election reform bill being considered in Congress that is supported by Democrats.
Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump, conveyed the 45th president’s words from a recent phone call during a Wednesday appearance on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s War Room Pandemic podcast.
“We have to stop this. We cannot let this go through,” Trump said in reference to bill H.R. 1, titled the “For the People Act,” according to Miller.
LINGERING 2020 BITTERNESS INFLAMES DEBATE AS DEMOCRATS PUSH MASSIVE ELECTION REFORM BILL
The bill would remove several restrictions on voting, proposing expanding the right to vote to felons, allowing people to vote with a sworn affidavit in place of a valid ID, and creating a nationwide automatic voter registration system. It was passed by the Democratic-led House last week and is now being taken up by the Senate, which is also narrowly controlled by the Democrats.
Republicans argue that the proposal is a federal takeover to keep themselves in office, and with the legislative filibuster in place, its prospects could be in jeopardy in the Senate. President Biden said the legislation is “urgently needed” and encouraged the upper chamber to pass it so he can sign the bill.
The sweeping changes sought by Democrats in Congress are mirrored by the changes GOP-controlled state legislatures are making to roll back voting access modifications that were made during the 2020 election cycle because of health concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been an increased and partisan-divided attention given to the issue of election reform in the aftermath of the November election at both the state and federal levels.
Trump and his allies filed dozens of lawsuits seeking to overturn the results, claiming that foreign interference, voting flipping machines, and dead people voting contributed to him losing states that they claimed Trump had actually won. They also alleged that some states unconstitutionally changed their election laws prior to the general vote. Their legal ventures have been roundly rejected by the courts, and federal, state, and local election officials have defended the integrity of the election.
Still, Trump won’t let the issue go as a private citizen living in Florida who is gearing up to help the GOP try to take back Congress in 2022.
“’The media wants to forget what happened in 2020. I haven’t, and we have a lot of work we have to do.’ He said that,” Miller conveyed as part of the message from Trump. “He said, ‘The media might want to forget what happened in 2020. I haven’t. We’re not going to forget what happened, and we got to stop this bill,” Miller added. “Democrats are trying to rig this thing for election going forward.”
Trump has only spoken publicly once since leaving the White House on Jan. 20, and that was during his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference late last month, during which he also attacked H.R. 1 before it was passed by the House.
“We have no time to waste. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress are racing to pass a flagrantly unconstitutional attack on the First Amendment and the integrity of our elections known as H.R. 1. Do you know what H.R. 1 is? It’s a disaster,” the former commander in chief stated.
Also at issue with the bill is what Republicans characterize as measures that would hinder free speech. It would require certain politically active groups such as 401(c)3 “dark money” nonprofit organizations to disclose donors who give $10,000 or more and expand the definition of election-related communication and reduce the influence of independent-expenditure-only “super PACs,” among other measures.
“Their bill would drastically restrict political speech, empower the federal government to shut down dissent and turn the Federal Election Commission into a partisan political weapon. In addition, it virtually eliminates voter ID requirements nationwide. Effectively ends all registration deadlines,” Trump said. “Can you believe this? Requires states to give ballots to felons. Automatically registers every welfare recipient to vote and puts unaccountable unelected bureaucrats in charge of drawing congressional districts. That’s going to be a lot of fun. This monster must be stopped. It cannot be allowed to pass.”
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Democrats have sought to fortify and strengthen certain election laws, such as no-excuse absentee voting and longer windows for absentee voting. Conversely, Republicans have sought to end such things as no-excuse absentee voting and strengthen voter ID laws as ways, they argue, to ensure confidence in the results.
At the state level, 43 states have carried over, prefiled, or introduced more than 250 bills that would restrict voting access as of late February. There has been a similar push from the other side to introduce legislation, 704 bills in all, that would expand voting rights in a different set of 43 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal-leaning law and policy institute.
