What's Trump's beef with Senate Republicans?
6/22/202619 min
President Trump is angry that Senate Republicans haven’t passed the Save America Act, a strict voter ID law that he has made his top legislative priority. And Senate Republicans are frustrated that Trump seems to be undermining their efforts to hold the Republican majority after the midterm election. We discuss the growing tensions and how they’re affecting lawmaking on the Hill.
This episode: senior political correspondent Tamara Keith, congressional reporter Sam Gringlas, and White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Tamara Keith· Host0:17
[upbeat music] Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover politics.
Sam Greenglass· Host0:26
I'm Sam Greenglass. I cover Congress.
Franco Ordoñez· Host0:28
And I'm Frank Ordona as I cover the White House.
Tamara Keith· Host0:30
Today on the pod, tensions between President Trump and Senate Republicans are reaching a breaking point, and Sam, it seems that, in short, the president wants something that the Senate can't give him, and it's creating all kinds of drama.
Sam Greenglass· Host0:46
Yeah, drama might be even a bit of an understatement here. Uh, President Trump really wants Congress to pass this legislation called the Save America Act. It's this strict voter ID law. It also includes a whole bunch of other controversial voting provisions, but the thing you need to know about it is that it does not have 60 votes to pass the Senate to get around the Senate filibuster. So Trump has been trying to push the Senate to get rid of the filibuster and to also fire the Senate parliamentarian, who has ruled that this could not be included as part of a party line vote that would only need 50 senators. Trump also keeps trying to attach it to other pieces of legislation, including agenda items that he really wants. You know, just the other week, a last-minute