Name: Congressman defends SAVE America Act as 'common sense' for voting
Uploaded: 2026-02-12T23:01:13.000Z
Duration: 7 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Basic passive voice

The Save America act is headed to the Senate after passing the House.

The bill would require government mandated proof of citizenship, such as passports or birth certificates, to register to vote.

That would also require states to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls.

Republican Congressman Mike Herodopoulos from Florida is a co sponsor of the bill.

So noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal and state elections.

Well, I think most importantly, we want to make sure we have photo id.

You don't have to be a Republican to believe in this.

Overwhelmingly, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, all believe you should require photo identification.

As you know, 14 states currently do not require that in order to board a plane or buy alcohol, for that matter, you need an id.

Considering the foundation of our government is a vibrant, safe democracy, we want to make sure that that is ensured that only Americans vote and in American elections.

So last week we spoke with a nonpartisan Brennan center for Justice.

So I want to play some of that sound for you right now when we're going to talk on the other side.

First and foremost, the SAVE act would block millions of Americans from being able to vote.

The SAVE act would require a passport or birth certificate or other citizenship document to register.

And we know that over 21 million Americans do not have ready access to those documents.

In fact, roughly half of Americans have a passport to begin with, and

millions don't have either of those documents at all.

This policy is a brazen voter suppression effort.

It would especially burden young voters and voters of color.

All right, Congressman, what's your response to that?

Well, they call that group nonpartisan is a joke.

The second part of it would be that everybody who flies in a plane knows you need a real id.

And this is, again, a safeguard for our democracy.

As you know, The Democrats in 2016 crash crowed left and right that Donald Trump was not a legally elected president.

What better way to affirm making sure only Americans are voting in American elections is to require ID and make sure it's a photo id.

Every other major country does this in national elections.

We want to make sure that people trust the election results.

And these were the same hysterical comments made when they changed the election laws in the state of Georgia and more people actually voted after they put those safeguards in place.

I'm very Confident that photo ID is the right way to go.

Where did this idea come from and why now?

When you tell people that they don't have to show photo ID in 14 states in order to vote, it's like, what are you talking about?

A lot of people are worried about some of the comments being made about illegals voting or other people who are not eligible.

We just want to safeguard the basis of democracy.

I believe that if we lose confidence in our elections, we lose the country.

And so we want to make sure that only people who are legally registered to vote, American citizens, will vote.

And you verify that with a simple photo id, just like you do before you go on a plane or let alone purchase alcohol or probably check into a hotel.

Why wasn't this done during Trump's first term?

Well, I don't know because I wasn't here.

And I want to pass things like the SAVE Act.

I want to give people the confidence once again that their vote counts.

And Congress should have an active role to make sure that the voter rolls are clean and that people who are truly eligible to vote vote and anybody who tries to do nefarious things is not eligible to vote.

So President Trump has called for Republicans to take over elections and nationalize voting.

Well, I think you're mischaracterizing it.

Congress has long had a role in getting involved in election law, whether it be back in 1845 when we made it where November would be, the elections for Congress, after the harvest, before winter set in 1965, of course, the Voter Rights act, the Civil Rights act, and

of course, Hava and other voting things we've done in recent years.

It doesn't mean we're nationalizing elections, and

it means we're setting up basic standards, which are common sense, photo identification, making sure you're the person who actually you say you are, so there is not rampant voter fraud that could take place.

I can tell you, as a history teacher, back in the 1880s, 1890s, where people go to multiple voting sites, say they're someone who they're really not.

Modern technology can easily solve the problems as the partisan Brennan center talked about before.

So when President Trump says he wants to take over elections and nationalize voting, and

I just repeat what he says, what part am I getting wrong?

Well, and I'm saying is, the way I view it, I can't speak for the President is.

what I'm saying is if the President of the United States says something and then we report on what he says, that's what the President says.

I mean, how am I mischaracterizing his own words and that this is what he's saying.

The Republicans should say we want to take over.

The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.

We have states that are so crooked and they're counting votes.

Now, if we need to put in federal controls as opposed to state controls, remember this, they're really an agent.

They're really accumulating the votes for who wins an election.

If they can't do it honestly and it can't be done properly and timely, then something else has to happen.

So just using what the President just said there in those two clips, do you support what he just said there?

In the 1960s when Southern states did not allow African Americans to vote, federal people came downstairs and made they down south and made sure they actually were able to register to vote.

If we think there's some nefarious things happening in the south or other parts of the country, of course federal agents will come in to make sure you have the idea of one person, one vote.

This is what happened in the civil rights movement.

And again, we're in a case right now when in 2016, Democrats said that somehow Donald Trump stole the election.

I can run you 20 minutes of that in 2020.

A lot of Republicans are concerned about that.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Congressman defends SAVE America Act as 'common sense' for voting

overwhelming

debate

common

sense