Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania on Wednesday dismissed the SAVE America Act, the controversial elections bill being pushed by the Trump administration and some Republican lawmakers. He criticized what he sees as the GOP’s about-face on mail-in voting.
“I don’t support it in its current state,” Fetterman told CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett in an interview Wednesday. The bill would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and photo ID to cast a ballot. President Trump has also called for Republicans to attach an amendment that would ban mail-in voting.
“The president is constantly critical on mail-in voting, and that’s ridiculous,” Fetterman said. “It’s safe. Some of the best examples in the country are from red states like Ohio and Florida.”
Fetterman recalled Act 77, legislation passed in 2019 by the Pennsylvania legislature with wide bipartisan support that legalized mail-in voting in the state. At the time, Fetterman was serving as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, which he said gave him a “unique perspective” on the issue.
“The Republicans in Pennsylvania pushed for mail-in voting,” Fetterman said of Act 77. “They forced us to give up the straight party line.”
However, a group of Republican state lawmakers, many of whom had voted in favor of Act 77, reversed course and filed a lawsuit in 2021 attempting to overturn the law after it was criticized by Mr. Trump. That attempt failed when the law was upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2022.
“And then immediately, the president decided that it’s wrong,” Fetterman said. “And then they had to walk back and explain why, unanimously, every single Republican voted for that in 2019.”
Fetterman said the SAVE America Act will “never pass” because of the filibuster. While Senate legislation only needs 51 votes to pass, under the Senate’s filibuster rule, it takes 60 votes to end debate on a bill and bring it to the floor for such a passage vote, a procedure known as cloture. A filibuster occurs when the Senate does not have the 60 votes needed.
Fetterman said he and fellow Democrats who ran for Congress in 2022 did so in part “to get rid of the filibuster,” but now find themselves depending on it.
“Now, we find ourselves as Democrats, we love the filibuster, we cling to that,” Fetterman said.
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated that the SAVE America Act did not have enough backing in the upper chamber. “There are no easy ways to do this,” Thune said Tuesday. “Believe me, we’ve examined all the options.”
Fetterman, meanwhile, noted that while he doesn’t support the SAVE America Act, he acknowledged that there appears to be wide support for some form of voter ID, citing a Pew Research Center survey released in August 2025 that showed 83% of Americans are in favor of all voters showing government-issued photo identification to cast a ballot.
Said Fetterman: “So if the Republicans would ever just make it showing basic state ID to vote, hey, I’m not going to tell 83% of Americans that they’re wrong, or that they are Jim Crow.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-fetterman-calls-trump-criticism-of-mail-in-voting-ridiculous-save-america-act/
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