Trump voter ID push faces Senate test as GOP rebels threaten to sink bill

By Fox News · Fox News

Senate Republicans are gearing up for a floor fight this week over doomed Trump-backed voter ID legislation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to launch the GOP’s floor strategy for the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act on Tuesday afternoon. It won’t be done through the talking filibuster, despite pressure from President Donald Trump and a fervent ecosystem of conservative influencers to do so. That’s because there is not enough support among Republicans to follow through with the move. SENATE GOP EYES BLAME GAME AS TRUMP-BACKED SAVE ACT HEADS FOR DEFEAT "It's about the math," Thune said. "And I'm, for better or worse, the one who has to be a clear-eyed realist about what we can achieve here. And so we'll continue to convey that. And I think that we're going to have the fight on the floor. We’re going to vote on this." Republicans' plan is to put Senate Democrats on record for voting down the bill. And Senate Democrats are primed to oblige. "Democrats will not let Donald Trump ram this bill through the Senate. Not this week, not ever," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on a call with reporters over the weekend. "And Democrats are going to make sure the American people have their chance to deliver their verdict at the elections this fall." Part of the issue among Republicans, outside the staggering amount of floor time it would take up, is that the GOP isn't unified to block Democratic amendments that could drastically alter the bill if they went the route of the talking filibuster. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who is one of the key voices pushing for the SAVE America Act in the Senate, acknowledged that Republicans "don’t have the votes for the talking filibuster right now." "We just got to, you know, we got to look at every way we can try to pass it," Scott said. GOP REACHES KEY 50-VOTE THRESHOLD FOR TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL AS SENATE FIGHT LOOMS Still, the first procedural step on Tuesday will take a si…