Speaker Johnson: “You Know What Actually Disenfranchises Voters? When Noncitizens Participate in Federal Elections”
Speaker Mike Johnson delivers remarks on the SAVE America Act at a House Leadership press conference on Tuesday.
SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Now we have the SAVE America Act. It’s identical legislation as the SAVE Act on the proof of citizenship, but as you heard, now, voters would have to display a valid ID to participate in federal elections. Again, a no brainer. So, in other words, it simply requires you are who you say are in order to vote. And if that sounds like a no brainer, it’s because it is. The question is often asked by pollsters, and the polling consistently shows 80 to 90% of Americans believe that proof of citizenship and proof of valid ID should be required to vote. There are a few issues in American politics that have that level of bipartisan support; this is one of them. The issue has so much support because it’s just common sense. Americans need an ID to drive, to open a bank account, to buy cold medicine, to file for government assistance, and as is noted by the Leader, you even need an ID to attend the events of most Democrat politicians and even the Democrat National Convention. So why would voting be any different from that? They can’t answer that question. And so, they come up with all these crazy excuses of why they can’t support. They’ve attempted so many arguments to oppose the pass of this simple legislation. First, they argued that we were too close to a federal election to make changes to voting procedures. That was last Congress, and of course that was nonsense. Then they argued that noncitizens and unregistered individuals don’t actually vote, and then we proved that they did, so then they changed their argument again. Then they argued that the SAVE Act disenfranchises married women who would have to change their last names. That was actually, you remember, that was a whole line of argument. And now this is their current argument. Now, Democrats are saying, breathlessly, the SAVE Act would result in voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement. It’s nonsense. Do you know what actually disenfranchises voters? When noncitizens participate in our federal elections and counteract the votes of registered American voters. That’s what we have to stop.
