🧵 1. McConnell’s attacks on Donald Trump & Rick Scott are indefensible
Those running for Senate GOP leadership posts need to weigh in on this & commit never to sabotage Republican candidates & colleagues—particularly those who are less than two weeks away from a close election
2. We must have clarity from the candidates running to replace McConnell on where they stand on these attacks. They must be clear on how they plan to lead the conference, and on the role of its members
3. The Senate Republican leader is supposed to help Republicans, not undermine them
Sadly, we’ve had too much of the latter
That must end now
4. Remember: McConnell’s superpac has withheld campaign support from Ted Cruz and Rick Scott this election season, an incomprehensible move for a Senate GOP “strong leader” who wants to keep Texas and Florida and gain a majority in the Senate
🧵1. While states primarily administer elections, the Constitution’s Elections Clause (Article I, Section 4) authorizes Congress to “make or alter” regulations for the “Times, Places and Manner” of federal elections.
The SAVE America Act fits squarely within that authority.
2. Requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections is *not* overreach.
It’s necessary to ensure compliance with an existing federal law that prohibits noncitizens from voting for U.S. senators and representatives, but has become largely unenforceable.
3. States remain free—and will remain free after the SAVE America Act becomes law—to run their own state and local elections in whatever manner they might choose.
Seven Simple Points Explaining How We Can Pass The SAVE America Act—And Save America!
(1) Bring the SAVE America Act back to the Senate floor next week, making clear that we will keep debating the bill until we pass it.
(2) Stay in session through weekends and (gasp) long-scheduled recess weeks, making clear that filibustering senators must stand, speak, and otherwise hold the floor—always with the understanding that if they drop the ball, we can “call the question” and pass the bill with the simple majority we already have.
(3) Even if the filibustering senators never drop the ball (that will NOT be an easy task for them if we keep up the pressure), they’ll start to experience political and physical exhaustion two or three weeks into this.
Many will begin thinking about face-saving amendments that could get them to “yes”—especially as it becomes clear to the American people that their arguments against the bill are not well founded.
It might have something to do with the Supreme Court’s ruling in NY Times v. Sullivan (1964).
2. Before the Court’s ruling in NY Times v. Sullivan, if the media lied about a public figure and wrecked his or her reputation, he or she could sue for defamation, typically in state court under state defamation law—just like anyone else.
3. But then the Warren Court invented a brand-new “actual malice” rule out of thin air: now public figures have to prove the media either *knew* their story was false OR recklessly disregarded the truth.
2. No, ChatGPT didn’t hallucinate; that’s literally what SCOTUS said in *Wickard v. Filburn*: growing wheat on your own land for your own use can be regulated by the U.S. government because it affects “interstate commerce.”
New Deal judicial activism at its peak.
3. Ohio farmer Roscoe Filburn grew extra wheat—a little more than federal regulators in Washington had “allowed” him to grow—to feed his animals and family.
But that wheat never entered interstate commerce.
In fact, it was never sold and never even left Filburn’s family farm in Montgomery County, Ohio (near Dayton).
2. It’s unwise and even reckless to run all spending bills through a single committee for at least three independent reasons
First, it makes no sense from a workload-distribution standpoint
3. The staggering size, cost, and complexity of the federal government are such that no sane person would assign all of the workload associated with all spending bills to one committee
Responsibility for spending bills should be distributed broadly among all who have been elected to either chamber of Congress—not just to a select few who happen to serve on one committee
🧵1. Congress should be *passing* the SAVE Act to stop noncitizens from voting—not paying leftists to lobby against it
The Labor/HHS spending bill advanced by the Senate Appropriations Committee contains an earmark giving $500,000 to leftists falsely claiming the SAVE Act would “disenfranchise millions of Americans”