Trump's voter ID bill catches unlikely break as McConnell remains sidelined

By Fox News · Fox News

An unlikely reason has chipped away, for now, at Senate Republican resistance against President Donald Trump’s flagship election priority. The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act has hit brick wall after brick wall in the Senate, and has only twice mustered 50 votes. Still, Trump wants Republicans to pass it by any means necessary. Republicans, however, aren’t unified behind it. One lawmaker, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has routinely voted against the bill in its variety of iterations, earning the personal ire of Trump. MCCONNELL FACES FRESH CALLS TO COME CLEAN ABOUT HEALTH ISSUES "Mitch McConnell," Trump told reporters last month. "He's very disloyal to John Thune. You know, John Thune was a very good person for him. I mean, he's a very loyal person, and Mitch McConnell's against him almost all the time because he's angry, I guess. Probably at me." McConnell has been absent from the Senate, which is currently in recess, for almost three weeks due to health issues. When he will return still remains unclear. But without his resistance, that’s one less "no" vote that Republicans have to contend with. REPUBLICAN SAYS TRUMP'S TOP ELECTION PRIORITY 'DEAD' IN SENATE AS GOP FRACTURES AHEAD OF MIDTERMS Still, it doesn’t address the broader math problem in the Senate weighing down the chances of the SAVE America Act passing. Senate Democrats are unified against it, meaning Trump and the SAVE America Act’s biggest proponents can’t break through the 60-vote filibuster, which has, in part, fueled the president’s demands to nuke the filibuster. Senate Republicans don’t have the votes to do that, either. "The only way you could get there is to undo or get rid of the legislative filibuster, and there aren't even close to the votes here in the United States Senate in order to achieve that," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said last month. There is the talking filibuster, which Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has pushed for months, which Republicans have y…