Mitch McConnell just stabbed Trump's biggest election priority in the back.
Now Josh Hawley is taking off the gloves after the latest RINO betrayal.
And what these four Republican senators did will have conservatives furious for a long time.
The Same Four Republicans Who Keep Killing the SAVE Act Voter ID Bill
McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Thom Tillis voted with every single Democrat to kill the SAVE America Act amendment during the Senate vote-a-rama.
The amendment have attached the voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirement to the nearly $70 billion reconciliation package funding ICE and Border Patrol.
It failed 48-50.
Not close to the 60 votes it needed.
The same four senators had already blocked the first attempt in April.
They did it once, got away with it, and did it again.
Hawley Unloads on McConnell Over Election Integrity Betrayal
Josh Hawley was not interested in being diplomatic about what just happened.
"You can't explain it to me why you wouldn't vote for voter ID," Hawley said. "I just don't understand it."
"Voter ID is the most popular thing out there," he continued. "There's a reason for that. People want their elections to be safe, they want them to be fair."
The numbers back him up.
A Pew Research Center survey found 83% of Americans support requiring voters to show government-issued photo ID.
Harvard CAPS/Harris polling puts it at 81% – including 79% of independents and 70% of Democrats.
80% of Americans want states to purge non-citizens from voter rolls.
This is four senators protecting a broken system against the wishes of the American people they were elected to serve.
McConnell and Tillis Cash Out on Their Way Out the Door
McConnell actually put his reasoning in writing.
He argued in a Wall Street Journal piece that the SAVE America Act would give a future president the power to federalize elections – handing a "voting gift" to Democrats.
Murkowski made a similar case, arguing the bill violated the Constitution by stripping states of authority over their own elections.
Hawley destroyed that excuse.
"We make federal rules all the time for elections," he said. "I mean all the time we do. And there's nothing more basic than protecting the integrity of the ballot and that's what this is about."
The Voting Rights Act is a federal law. So is the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022. Campaign finance disclosures, counting procedures, registration systems — Congress built all of it.
Arguing that asking someone to show ID is a federal overreach – while accepting every other federal election rule – is not a principled stand.
It is an excuse.
A version of this bill passed the House in 2025 and died in the Senate.
A stronger version passed the House again in February 2026.
Senate Republicans held a full floor debate in March and still could not break the Democratic filibuster.
Then they tried twice to attach it to reconciliation – and failed both times because the same four members of their own caucus kept pulling the plug.
This is the Republican establishment doing what it has always done: making promises during campaign season, then protecting the status quo when it counts.
"Sooner or later this is going to happen because I think the American people are going to demand it," Hawley predicted.
McConnell and Tillis are gone after this term.
They used one of their last votes to protect a broken system against 83% of the American people – and they did it twice, on purpose.
That is not a procedural disagreement.
That is a declaration of whose side they were always on.
Sources:
- Gateway Pundit, "BREAKING: Senate Votes 48-50 to Reject SAVE America Act," June 5, 2026.
- RedState, Bob Hoge, "The 4 Republicans Who Helped Dems Shoot Down the SAVE America Act Again," June 5, 2026.
- Newsweek, "Republicans Revolt Against Trump Again With SAVE Act Vote, Spark MAGA Fury," June 6, 2026.
- World Tribune, "McConnell, Collins, Tillis, Murkowski Again Join Democrats to Thwart Save America Act," June 5, 2026.
- White House Press Release, "The SAVE America Act Is the Most Popular Election Reform in Decades," March 12, 2026.
- Fox News, Stephen Sorace, "Vast Majority of Americans Support Photo ID Requirement to Vote," October 24, 2024.