Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Thursday that Democrats are blocking the SAVE America Act because they “want to cheat” in U.S. elections.
Appearing on “Wake Up America,” the Wisconsin Republican said the fight over election integrity is about protecting legitimate votes from being diluted by fraud.
“As President [Donald] Trump stated in his State of the Union, it’s because Democrats want to cheat,” Johnson said.
He argued that the left’s opposition to the SAVE America Act fits into a broader pattern of resisting basic election safeguards that most Americans support.
“This isn’t just an isolated piece of legislation,” Johnson said. “The Democrats, through their NGOs [non-governmental organizations], promoted millions of people to come to this country illegally.
"They send them off to sanctuary cities and states, they pump up the census, they get more members of Congress.”
He contended that those policies ultimately reshape political power while undermining confidence in elections.
Johnson pointed to mail-in and absentee voting expansions during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing findings he attributed to a bipartisan group created to address issues in the U.S. electoral process.
“For example, the Baker Commission said absentee balloting is probably the one area that [has] the greatest potential for fraud in our elections,” he said, adding that Democrats “doubled that during COVID.”
The senator accused Democrats of pushing policies that weaken election safeguards at every turn.
“They push mail-in balloting, they push automatic registration,” Johnson said. “Again, Democrats want to make it easy to cheat.”
He contrasted that with what he described as overwhelming public support for voter ID and other commonsense protections.
“Eighty percent of Americans say, No, we don’t want our legitimate vote canceled by a fraudulent one,” Johnson said. “So, we support things like voter ID."
“But Democrats obviously do,” he added, arguing that Democrats “oppose any election security measure, including the SAVE America Act.”
Asked about negotiations in Washington, regarding the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Johnson said talks between the White House and Senate Democrats don’t appear very productive, as his colleagues across the aisle are “not voting to fund DHS.”
“I’d say those negotiations haven’t been too successful initially,” he said.
Johnson also noted that the last government shutdown was “promoted by and caused by Democrats,” saying that Republicans twice backed his Shutdown Fairness Act to ensure essential and furloughed workers were paid.
“All 53 Republican senators voted for that twice,” he said, calling the unity “pretty unusual,” while noting only a handful of Democrats supported the measure.
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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