CBS’s Brennan Confronts GOP Senator on ‘Jamming’ Through Trump-Backed Voting Bill: Will ‘Jamming’ it Through ‘Hurt Faith’ In Election Process?

CBS News’s Margaret Brennan confronted Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) over whether “jamming” the Trump-backed SAVE America Act through Congress would be good for the country’s “faith” in the election system.

On Sunday’s Face The Nation, Kennedy said the Senate needed to “take another crack at the SAVE Act” before summer recess.

“We need to put the House budget resolution on the floor, it’s the only chance we have to get money to defense, the farmers, and to take another crack at the SAVE Act by voting on it as part of a resolution bill,” Kennedy said.

“You just said you wanted to move forward on what the House just started the process on,” Brennan began. “That would be a party-line vote. That would be Republicans jamming this thing through, and the Save Act, as you know — or even some version of it — is highly partisan, highly controversial.”

“Bigger picture: Isn’t it going to hurt faith in our election process if a Republican-only policy to change how elections are run is rammed through 100 days, you know less than 100 days out from the election?” Brennan asked.

“No, in my opinion, for both sides to have credibility in the elections, in our elections, we need to do two things and only two things,” Kennedy said. “Number one, you have to prove you are who you say you are in order to register to vote and to vote, and number two, however you decide to vote, that’s up to the states. We need to go back to having an election day, not an election month. We got to know the results of the election that night or shortly thereafter if it’s close. That to me is what the SAVE act is all about, and I think we can pass it and I think we can craft it in a way to survive a bird bath. But we’re not going to know if we don’t try.

“Grants, in other words, to states to incentivize, not requirements for states to take out,” Brennan added.

“Yeah, but that’s not the only thing. I’ve been contacted by some really smart people about a way to do it in addition to the grants. I’m not saying it will work, but you’re not going to know unless you try,” Kennedy said.

The budget reconciliation bill includes a “$10 billion pot of money” that’s “expected to incentivize states to adopt parts of the original SAVE America Act — first passed by the House earlier this year — to help cover implementation costs,” according to Fox News.

Watch the clip above via CBS News.

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