After months of battling, the Save America Act is finally on the floor of the Senate, and we re going to break down exactly what s happening this week on the Senate floor. Ted Cruz is leading the fight to get the bill passed.
00:05:38.000But it is worth remembering that our voting system did not begin as it exists today.
00:05:43.780When this nation was founded, the right to vote was limited, and over time, through debate, sacrifice, a bloody civil war, and constitutional amendment, the right to vote was quite properly expanded.
00:05:59.620The 15th Amendment prohibited denying the vote based on race.
00:06:05.440The 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote.
00:06:09.520And the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18.
00:06:15.100At every stage of our constitutional amendment process, the goal was the same.
00:06:20.440To ensure that the right to vote belonged to American citizens and that it was exercised with integrity.
00:06:29.900And while our system has evolved, one principle has remained constant.
00:06:36.180Elections reflect the will of the American people.
00:06:39.520for a right so sacred, for a privilege so hard-fought.
00:06:49.800how neglected and vulnerable the protection of our elections has become.
00:06:55.400That is why I'm here today on this very floor,
00:06:58.980urging the members of this body to pass the Save America Act.
00:07:04.740It says that when you register to vote in a federal election, you must provide proof that you are a citizen of the United States, and you must provide photo ID to vote.
00:19:41.920want illegals to vote for. They want power enough that they are more than happy to undermine
00:19:48.880democracy, to try to seize power. I get that from their personal self-interest, but it
00:19:58.380is not in the interest of the men and women they represent. It is not in the interest
00:20:01.640of the people of America. This bill is rightly called the Save America Act. And Mr. President,
00:20:11.920If we were voting on the merits of what was good for America, what was good for democracy, what was good for American citizens, the vote would be 100 to nothing.
00:20:24.860Although I would note on the other side of this building at the State of the Union address that you were at that I was at, we saw why our Democrat colleagues are so adamantly opposed to this bill.
00:20:35.020President Trump turned to the Democrats on the right side of the floor of the House
00:20:41.780and it gave him an opportunity to demonstrate with absolute clarity.
00:20:45.820He said, if you agree, our first priority should be to fight for American citizens
00:20:52.440and not for illegal aliens, please stand.
00:20:56.300And every single Democrat in Congress remained seated.
00:25:13.520So you can do, so what will happen when you're doing a filibuster is other senators will come in and ask, will the senator yield for a question?
00:25:21.160And you can say, I will yield for a question without yielding the floor.
00:25:25.800And then if it's an ally of yours, so for example, Mike Lee was on the floor all 21 hours I was there.
00:25:37.700And I had a number. I had about a dozen senators who came and spelled me for a period, because when you're talking for 21 hours, your voice starts to hurt.
00:25:45.240So the thing you will do is Mike would ask, would you yield for a question?
00:25:49.920And I say, well, yield for a question without yielding the floor.
00:25:52.800And then he'd talk 30 minutes and he'd get up and he'd like give a, you know, and like like at three in the morning, we went through like 70s rock songs and horrible puns and jokes.
00:26:04.320um and then after 30 minutes you know you can say wouldn't you agree and that's the question you ask
00:26:10.760um and so it's a way to give some relief by the way many people remember during that he sat down
00:26:17.380during the 21 hours right he can sit down you know anyone else can sit down it's just the person that
00:26:22.340has the floor that can't sit down and and a lot of people remember that during that filibuster i
00:26:27.900read green eggs and ham what they don't necessarily remember is why i read green eggs and ham
00:26:33.880And the reason is, at the time, our daughters were three and five.
00:26:40.480And when I was home, I would read them bedtime stories every night.
00:28:18.480Glenn's got a good sense of, like, telling a story.
00:28:21.300So I yanked my tie and I did. I don't think I messed up my hair, but I at least loosened the tie and tried to look a little more disheveled after 21 hours.
00:28:30.180You know, you shouldn't look like you're just just popping out of bed.
00:28:59.640You don't visibly do it while you're speaking, but you can do it.
00:29:02.940It may have been during one of the questions that I noticed,
00:29:05.160like I was looking at the text and Glenn had sent me a text.
00:29:08.040By the way, interestingly enough, during the speech that we just played,
00:29:13.520so the Senate parliamentarian, Jim Banks, Republican from Indiana, was presiding.
00:29:18.600The Senate parliamentarian tried to convince him to sanction me under Rule 19 of the Senate rules for impugning the integrity of another senator.
00:29:35.160And apparently she was mad because I said, you know, it's not surprising that the Democrats are experts on Jim Crow because they wrote the Jim Crow laws and they founded the KKK.
00:29:44.960And she thought that was terrible for me to point out what are undeniable historical facts.
00:29:51.260She thought it was somehow a violation of the Senate rules to speak the truth.
00:29:56.460I have to admit, the parliamentarian previously, years ago, tried to get me to Rule 19,
00:30:02.740to rule that Mike Lee had done the same thing.
00:30:05.020And I laughed at her and said, no, I'm not going to do that either.
00:30:10.140You know, thankfully, it takes a stubborn thing.
00:30:12.760There's history. It's a stubborn thing sometimes. So look, a standing and talking filibuster is
00:30:19.940exhausting. It takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot out of you. Under the Senate rules,
00:30:26.780each senator is limited to two speeches in a legislative day total. Now, the Senate can keep
00:30:34.900a legislative day going for weeks. A legislative day goes until you adjourn the day. So if you look
00:30:42.360at during the civil rights act multiple days yes it can be weeks if you look at the civil rights
00:30:48.020act in 1964 the democrats filibustered against it they were opposed to it they wanted segregation
00:30:54.240and the leadership there forced kept a legislative day open for weeks and kept forcing them to
00:31:02.980filibuster and talk and talk and talk and talk and eventually it wore them down and that's how
00:31:08.160the Civil Rights Act in 1964 got passed. So what I have been arguing to the conference at length,
00:31:13.980we had to do the same thing. We had to force the Democrats explain why you think illegal aliens
00:31:19.000should be voting, why you think that it's okay that you need an ID to buy a beer at a bar,
00:31:24.460but not an ID to vote, and make them, drive them to the principle of exhaustion, drive them to the
00:31:31.420point that they just can't fight anymore. Now, here's the rub. To do that, Ben, we need 50
00:31:38.220Republicans willing to stand strong. To date, we haven't had that. We've been arguing about this
00:31:43.700within the conference for several weeks. I have been making the case as impassioned as I can
00:31:48.140to my colleagues, and we are likely just short of 50. So if that doesn't change, what's going to end
00:31:58.100up happening this week is we're going to vote again on the Save America Act. 50 or 51 Republicans
00:32:06.280will vote for it, but we'll need 60 unless we force them to do a talking filibuster. So it will
00:32:12.180fail this week unless something changes significantly. That's infuriating. And so I'm
00:32:17.240calling on my colleagues, come on, let's stand together and fight. And I'll tell you, one of the
00:32:22.140arguments my colleagues have used with me. They've said, look, Ted, if we fight and at the end of the
00:32:28.600day lose, people will be discouraged and demoralized and they'll stay home in November.
00:32:35.220And my response is, well, and I do too. And my response was, look, okay, maybe we lose. It's
00:32:41.960not guaranteed a hundred percent victory, but you know how you can guarantee a hundred percent
00:32:47.380losing, don't fight. Like if we don't fight, it's 100% that we lose. So if we stand up and we fight
00:32:55.280and we're all there all night and we're battling, we're battling, we're battling, and at the end
00:32:59.580of the day we come up short, that gives people a lot more reason to vote than if we don't get 50
00:33:06.980who are even willing to fight. So I think there's a lot of frustration right now.
00:33:10.560To be very clear for everybody listening, to do what you're advocating for, which is to