The following is an edited transcript excerpt from “The Michael Knowles Show.”

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In the last couple of days, the media has been forced to acknowledge reality on multiple fronts, beginning with one of the most controversial bills going through Congress right now. Senator Mike Lee, a great Republican senator, is the champion behind the bill and it’s called the SAVE Act.

What is the SAVE Act? It’s the Safeguard American Voting Eligibility Act, which says you need to prove that you’re eligible to vote if you want to vote. 

Simple, right? This should easily pass.

Not only can they not get the Democrats to vote for it — because Democrats want the illegals to vote so that they can rig elections and steal votes from the American people — apparently, the Republicans can’t even get the Republicans to vote for this. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says there aren’t anywhere close to the votes to nuking the filibuster, which would be required to get the SAVE Act through. So, although that idea continues to be put out there, it doesn’t have a future.

Making Americans submit ID in order to vote — safeguarding American elections in the most basic way — doesn’t have a future, not just because of Democrats who obviously don’t want to secure our elections, but because of Republicans.

So, you might say, well, some of these senators, you know, they’re representing whole states and some of those states are kind of purple. You know, maybe this is really a controversial issue. You know, the Democrats hate voter ID and maybe it’s controversial among Republicans.

Thank you Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.

Here’s what CNN has to say about the issue:

Voter ID is overwhelmingly popular with everyone except Democrat politicians.

CNN: “The bottom line is this: Voter ID is not controversial in this country… it is not controversial by party and it is not controversial by race.” pic.twitter.com/XYzmcnTw1s

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 10, 2026

Credit: @RNCResearch/X.com

What’s the racial breakdown on this? Because I think a lot of people make the argument that people of color, nonwhite Americans, have a harder time procuring a photo ID to vote. But even here, take a look here. Favor photo ID to vote: 85% of white people favor it, 82% of Latino voters, 76% of Black Americans favor it. So the bottom line is this: voter ID is not controversial in this country. A photo ID to vote is not controversial in this country. It is not controversial by party, and it is not controversial by race. The vast majority of Americans agree with Nicki Minaj that, in fact, you should have a photo ID to be able to vote.

Not controversial in the least.

I was surprised by these racial polls — and actually by the partisan poll too. Basically every Republican supports voter ID, but even 71% of Democrats favor voter ID. Yet zero percent of Democrats who are in elected office support voter ID.

You have 76% of Black people — this is the most reliably Democrat racial group, the group that we are told is specifically being disenfranchised by voter ID — more than three quarters of them support voter ID.

When you look at Latinos, it’s even higher: 82%. We’re told Latinos are being discriminated against, it’s hard for them to get ID.

And white people are close to the Latinos at 85%.

Everybody supports voter ID except for elected Democrats, none of whom support voter ID. Why? Because they are trying to steal elections. This isn’t tinfoil hat stuff. This is the only way to explain the discrepancy between elected Democrats — politicians, operatives, activists — and ordinary voters. Basically everyone in the country supports voter ID. The only people who don’t are the ones who particularly work to run and win elections.

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What you’re going to hear from the establishment media is, well, actually, you know, it’s very rare for illegal aliens to vote in elections. It’s very rare for people who are ineligible to vote in elections.

Right. Sure. Okay. 

The libs have told you a lot of lies over the years, and I’m not going to go through the litany of them now but I just want to take you back a few months.

Do you remember when the Democrats shut the government down? The Democrats shut the government down because they wanted to try to juice their numbers before some special elections. And the Republicans came out and said you’re shutting the government down in order to give health care to illegal aliens.

And the Democrats uniformly said, no, we are not. We do not give health care to illegal aliens. That is not true. That’s a lie.

By the end of the shutdown, the Democrats were inveighing against the Republicans because they said this is so awful — illegal aliens can’t get food, they’re losing their health care, they’re losing their SNAP benefits. They completely contradicted themselves over the course of weeks. Not years, not even months but weeks. They told you illegal aliens don’t get health care and welfare, and then they told you we have to reopen the government so that illegal aliens can get health care and welfare again.

The Democrats tell you that illegal aliens are not voting, but they are fighting tooth and nail against the vast majority of their own voters to prevent voter ID. Why? I think it might have something to do with the fact that illegal aliens are voting. The Democrats are counting on illegal aliens to vote. Even beyond illegal aliens, there are plenty of other ineligible voters who are not illegal aliens — voters who maybe are bussed in from out of district, voters who maybe because of felonies or other issues are not allowed to vote. Regardless, they need to minimize ballot security measures.

The only explanation—the only explanation—for the Democrats to fight against their own voters on this issue is that they want to steal elections. If you don’t get that at this point, I don’t know how to help you.

The House of Representatives passed a new version of the SAVE America Act on Wednesday evening, giving some new life to legislation that would require photo identification and proof of U.S. citizenship for voters.

The vote went largely along party lines, with every Republican who was present voting in favor of the measure. The lone Democrat to break with his party and vote for the SAVE America Act was Henry Cuellar (D-TX).

The bill, introduced by Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy and pushed by President Donald Trump, now heads to the Senate, where it faces an uphill battle to reach Trump’s desk. To pass the Senate, the SAVE Act will have to reach the 60-vote threshold to overcome the filibuster, meaning at least seven Democrats would have to join all Republicans in approving the bill, which is unlikely.

Recent polling shows that the vast majority of Americans support photo ID requirements for voting, but legislation mandating ID requirements has struggled to gain traction in Congress. On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also came out against the bill, arguing that it would “effectively” federalize elections, something she said Republicans have opposed in the past.

The House passed another version of the SAVE Act last year, but it stalled in the Senate. The revamped version of the bill would require voters to provide proof of citizenship along with photo ID before they cast their ballots, meaning people would have to show additional documentation such as a passport or a birth certificate.

Democrats claim that the SAVE America Act would “disenfranchise millions of Americans.” Earlier this month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the bill “Jim Crow 2.0,” the same criticism Democrats used for Georgia’s photo ID law that passed in 2021.

“Millions of American citizens — millions — don’t have access to the paperwork that SAVE would require and would be in danger of getting shut out of our democracy,” Schumer said during remarks on the Senate floor on Monday. “For example, if you’re one of the 50% of Americans who doesn’t have a passport, or if you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans who can’t quickly access your birth certificate, the SAVE Act could, in effect, take away your right to vote.”

Republicans have pushed back on Democrats’ arguments, saying that U.S. citizens can obtain passports and copies of their birth certificates.

“The SAVE America Act provides multiple ways to prove citizenship, as millions of Americans do every day for work, travel, and financial transactions,” said Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, who introduced the legislation in the Senate. “It’s sad that congressional Democrats are so afraid of election security that they’re willing to spread falsehoods about commonsense safeguards supported by a majority of both Republicans and Democrats across the country.”

For months, Trump has called on Republicans to abolish the filibuster, which would help them pass some of his important agenda items like the SAVE Act, but Republican leaders have pushed back. Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said, “There aren’t anywhere close to the votes, not even close, to nuking the filibuster.”

Lee told Deseret News that there could be another way to pass the SAVE Act without “nuking” the filibuster. He said the Senate could revive the talking filibuster, which requires senators to be on the floor and actively speaking to stall a vote, a move that could circumvent the 60-vote threshold needed for cloture.

“Nothing in the Senate’s an easy move. This one’s certainly not,” Lee added. “But if we want to do this, this is how we have to go about it.”