Episode 226

On this episode of the Removing Barriers Podcast, we discuss H. R. 22, the SAVE America Act. The bill has passed in the House but faces significant challenges in the senate, even with the strong bipartisan support. What is the SAVE America Act? Can it really do much to safeguard the nation’s elections after the unfettered illegal immigration into the country? Is it true that the bill either will or can be used to disenfranchise certain population groups? Is the bill racist and far right as its detractors claim? How should Christians consider the bill and the arguments for and against it? We welcome your input as we discuss these things and more.

[Jay]

You don’t need your original birth certificate. You can get a copy, an authenticated copy, and that would work just fine. But see, people just hear original birth certificate and automatically they fall into victim status like, oh, you’re right, I just can’t.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG. And we’re attempting to remove barriers, so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

This is episode 226 of the Removing Barriers podcast. And in this episode, we will be discussing the barriers of the Save America Act. And further, we’ll be reviewing a panel discussion of CNN Newsnight with Abby Philip.

[Jay]

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things removing barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net/donate. Removing barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

All right, Jay, let’s start with defining or telling the folks what is the Save America Act.

[Jay]

The Save America Act is an amendment to the National Voter Registration Act of 1933, sponsored by Representative Chip Roy of Texas’s 21st District. It amends the National Voter Registration Act to require proof of U.S. citizenship to register an individual to vote in elections for federal office and for other purposes. Documentary proof of U.S. citizenship can include the Real ID-compliant forms of ID, a valid U.S. passport, military ID card, any government-issued card that shows a U.S. birthplace, or any government-issued ID card that is presented with an official document demonstrating citizenship, such as a birth certificate, naturalization or citizenship certificates, final adoption decrees, those kinds of things. It also requires the state to remove non-citizens from voter registration rolls, and it penalizes any officer or employee’s attempt to help or accept the voter registration of a non-citizen applicant. The SAVE Act has almost universal support among all the constituents in the country. It enjoys very high support rates even among Democrat voters. Where the act receives paltry support is in the halls of the Democratic establishment, the politicians that call themselves Democrat, and they feel that the bill is only another attempt in a long list of attempts. to marginalized poor or minority people who, they argue, may not have access to documents that can authenticate their or prove their U.S. citizenship.

[MCG]

All right, so we have an audio here from, this is ABC News. They’re going to go in and define what the SAVAC is and talk about some of the stuff. We’re going to start with this audio, then we’re going to go into CNN Newsnight with Abby Phillip because they had a panel discussion that I found quite interesting about the SAVE Act and probably I hate to use this term, but there’s many misinformation, disinformation about the SAVE America Act if I should use a term popularized by the binded administration. So here’s ABC News.

[ABC News Clip]

The House has officially passed the GOP’s SAVE America Act. The act would require government mandated proof of citizenship such as passports or birth certificates to register to vote. It would also require states to remove non-citizens from existing voter rolls. Supporters of the bill say would protect election integrity.

[MCG]

So that’s pretty much what you just read. So it continues.

[ABC News Clip]

And crackdown on non-citizen voting, while opponents argue the bill would make registering harder for millions of voters. So the Constitution already prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal and state elections and state election boards say instances of non-citizen voting are rare. The bill now heads over to the Senate, where it faces a potential filibuster from the Democrats.

[MCG]

So here as he said it passed the house 217 Republicans voted yes one Democrat voted yes 213 Democrats voted no and there was one no vote on the Republican side so in total there’s 218 votes for yes and 213 votes for no and it passed the house and of course it’s heading to the Senate, which most likely will not pass. As of the recording of this episode, the Senate has not voted on Save America Act yet. But maybe by the time this comes out or by late March, early April, we probably wouldn’t know whether or not this passed. But most likely it will not pass the Senate. They’re going to filibuster it. Anyways, continue.

[ABC News Clip]

Let’s bring in ABC News legal contributor James Sample for more on this. So, James, your thoughts on this bill?

[ABC News Clip]

Perry, you laid it out very well. This is a bill that would dramatically change the role of the federal government in the administration of federal elections. Even though federal elections are by definition for federal office, they are administered primarily at the state level, and that is a function of Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution, which…

[MCG]

Okay, I’m going to get back to… Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution because he’s glaringly leaving out some stuff there, but he’s correct on the other stuff he’s saying that, of course, the states are the ones who run the election for the federal offices.

[ABC News Clip]

The framers of the Constitution made very clear, gives the states the primary responsibility for administering elections and gives the federal government only a small backup role. But this would dramatically shift that balance if it were to become law. And it would, most importantly and most immediately, pose significant barriers for individuals, many individuals who are already U.S. citizens, who’ve in many cases voted many times properly, because they would have to obtain not identification, but identification that in many instances would require them to show a passport or a birth certificate establishing U.S. citizenship. Now, for many Americans, most Americans even, that is not a significant hardship, but for a significant percentage of Americans, that would be a hardship that would prevent them from voting. Numbers are estimated around 21 million. The question becomes, is that cost disenfranchising at least a significant fraction of 21 million Americans worth the benefit of preventing non-citizens from voting when we know from study after study that there are only a small, and we’re talking single digits per election year, number of non-citizens who actually cast a vote.

[MCG]

Okay, so I’m pausing it there for a little bit because I want to go back to Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution that he mentioned, because I think he he’s clearly leaving some stuff out so it reads the times places and manner of holding elections for senators and representative shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulation except as to the places of choosing senators so yes the Constitution gives the states legislature the power in terms of the times, places, and manner of holding elections. But he definitely left out that part, the other clauses say. But Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulation, except as to the places of choosing senators.

[Jay]

And this is exactly what they’re doing with the Save America Act, is it not?

[MCG]

Most likely, but I’m just simply saying here, he’s appealing to the Constitution since the Save Act is somehow violating the Constitution when he’s the one who’s leaving out the other clause Of course, I’m no lawyer and maybe I’m not interpreting the plain text of the Constitution as it’s written correctly. But far as I see here, that’s exactly what the SAVAC is doing. It’s going to Congress so they can alter the regulation of how people register and are allowed to vote. But he said it’s violating at the one section for the Constitution while conveniently leaving out. other parts of it that clearly show that it’s a vacant constitution. Obviously, if they should pass a Senate, which is highly unlikely, it’s going to be challenged in the courts and the Supreme Court is probably most likely going to have to rule on it. So we’re probably going to find out if it passed. If it doesn’t pass, I guess it’s dead and President Trump and Republicans are going to try another avenue to get something like it passed. But I don’t find him to be credible while leaving out that part, even though he’s right on the first part. Anyways, I’ll let ABC News continue.

[ABC News Clip]

So it seems like that these are some major impacts this bill could have on voters.

Oh, there is no doubt that if this bill were to pass through the Senate, and to be clear, I think that’s unlikely at the moment. But if the majority leader in the Senate, John Thune, elects to do away with the filibuster, then this bill could, that was the so-called nuclear option, then this bill would pass the Senate and it would go to the president and it would have a dramatic impact and it would be an immediate impact in the 2026 midterms, there would be, in many instances, chaos because of the transition period. We think about November as being a long way away. From the standpoint of election administration, it’s effectively tomorrow. This would be an upheaval of historic proportion.

[MCG]

No, I do agree with him on that part. I think that if the Save America Act should become a law, that they should at least implemented for the presidential election in 2028 and not the midterms of 2026, because I don’t think that would be giving the states enough time to really go through and get this passed and get best practices and stuff like that. So I do agree with him on that if he should pass. He talked about the challenges of birth certificate and all, so we’re going to get into that. I’ll just say that I’m a nationalized citizen. And if there’s anyone that should have problems proving anything, it probably should be people like me who are nationalized citizens. And I won’t have a problem proving anything. And as for birth certificates, my two last sons, I didn’t have a birth certificate for them. And I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles, paid them a small fee or do a document search. And in no time, they print two birth certificates and I walk out. It’s not that difficult, people. It’s not that difficult. I understand there’s some people, they might live in rural areas or whatever the case may be. It’s not that difficult. We live in the United States of America. It’s not that difficult.

[Jay]

Even for people that live in rural areas, it is not that difficult. I went through and checked almost every state in the country to see if your birth certificate can be requested online. And for all of them, they can be requested online. You provide information and you can request the birth certificate online. It’s not difficult at all. But it is difficult for people who do not have US citizenship. It would be extremely difficult for them.

[MCG]

And that’s the purpose of the bill.

[Jay]

And that’s the purpose of the bill, exactly.

[MCG]

Anyways, we shall continue.

[ABC News Clip]

So if this bill does become law, what kind of legal challenges could we see?

You will see legal challenges from the states who will argue that this is a violation of that constitutional provision that I referenced before, Article 1, Section 4, saying that they have the primary responsibility to cover the time, place, and manner. That’s the language in the Constitution. They would also argue the 10th Amendment, that this is an intrusion on federalism. And what’s fascinating is that this is a bit of a juxtaposition. Normally.

[MCG]

Again, I don’t see how it imposes on the 10th amendment. Plus, again, it’s convenient leaving out Article 1, Section 4 says that Congress can pass a law to amend it anyways.

[ABC News Clip]

It is Democrats in Congress trying to pass legislation that prevents discriminatory practices, such as passing the Voting Rights Act in federal elections. This would be a significant shift. There would also be challenges from individual voters who would face the possibility of being disenfranchised.

And then Republicans are introducing another bill, the Make Elections Great Again Act. It would ban universal mail-in voting among…

[MCG]

I wonder who named that. Make America… What?

[Jay]

Make elections great again. So mega.

[MCG]

All right.

[ABC News Clip]

Other restrictions. How would these proposals change federal involvement in elections?

Well, first, I think it’s worth the two of us acknowledging the clever naming devices of all of these bills. I mean, Americans for Apple Pie sounds very good, but make elections great again. That act is actually more severe, more extreme than the Save America Act is, in the sense that it would mandate that states undertake monthly purges of their voter rolls. And the problem with that, it sounds innocuous on its face, but one thing that we have learned in study after study is that databases of names are rife with errors and the matching problem, somebody uses a middle initial, somebody uses a married name, maiden name. These things are very difficult and it would cause chaos for sure.

[MCG]

Hey, I’m a software engineer. It’s not difficult. Again, we’re talking about barriers that, yes, databases rife with errors. I know that because of my name and the amount of, let me say, mix up that the state that I live in has done with my name and other entities, even the federal government has done with my name. But I don’t think it’s such a big barrier. And talking about names and stuff like that, a qualified software engineer can go in there and clean stuff up and make sure stuff are straight and can do a lot of things with databases that just requiring stuff. If you have a middle name, you have to spell out your middle name. You have to use a state ID or your driver’s license ID or your social security number as the primary key. There’s so many stuff you can do to make sure that the person that you’re removing is the person that needs to be removed. It’s not that difficult, really.

[ABC News Clip]

James Sample, thank you.

[MCG]

All right, so that was ABC News talking about the Save America Act and stuff like that. And then this next audio that we have here, We’re going to go into CNN Newsnight with Abby Phillip, and they’re going to have a panel discussion, talking about some of the same stuff, but they’re going to go into some little bit deeper stuff that we want to look at as well. And before I do that, though, I want to talk about the fact that the Make Elections Great Again Act, talking about mail-in ballots. I personally don’t like mail-in ballots. I think they should be illegal to the point where it’s only a small percentage of people can do it. Namely, if you’re sick, you’re shot in, if you have some kind of work that is deemed essential that you can’t get off, it should be very, very rare. Because quite honestly, I don’t even trust the USPS with my regular mail, much less just give them my ballot. All of us who have adjusted and received mail know their failures and their, what should we say, unprofessionalism of the United States Social Services. And then we’re going to send them something like as important as our ballot. I don’t even trust them to deliver my debit cards or credit card properly or whatever. Didn’t know the time I had to be searching and calling and doing all kind of stuff because they either put my mail in the wrong mailbox or give it to my neighbor or some nonsense. And we got to trust them without me. No, I don’t agree with mailing ballots. I think it’s rife with fraud. And while I can say that I support everything in the Make Election Grid Again Act, maybe not every month. Maybe they have to clean it up every three months. Every month is pretty fast. There will be definitely a couple of people, full-time jobs. So maybe you can say every three months or every six months or whatever the case may be. But I do agree. I don’t think we should be voting by mailing anyways.

[Jay]

Well, mail-in ballots also increase the occurrence of ballot harvesting, which we know that the Democrats are very, very efficient and good at.

[MCG]

Well, allegedly.

[Jay]

Allegedly, that’s…

[MCG]

From 2020.

[Jay]

Allegedly. But it does make for a more secure election if we would reduce mail-in ballots in the way that you described. There are instances where they’re needed. I can think of… Right off the top of my head, I can think of at least 10 people I personally know that are physically incapable of physically going in to vote. But the way that it’s set up right now, it’s certainly not conducive to secure elections.

[MCG]

Yeah, I think in lieu of mail-in ballots, we can probably extend early voting to some degree, but I think it should be very rare. very, very rare, because, let’s leave it in the way, I don’t trust the U.S. personal services. Right. Anyways, here is Abby Phillip and her panel.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

Tonight in Donald Trump’s quest to overhaul American elections, the president says he sees a path forward. In a vote that fell largely on party lines this week, House Republicans and one Democrat passed the Save America Act, which would impose strict new voter identification rules, including documentary proof of citizenship in person for voter registration.

It’s the Save America Act, and the Democrats are against it. I heard one of them say, we will stop the Save America Act. No, we’re trying to save America. And it has to do with largely voting. And basically, it’s got three very simple points. It’s got voter ID, photo ID, but voter ID with a photo, right? It’s got the confirmation of U.S. citizenship. And then you have no mail-in ballots. And there would be no mail-in ballots, very important. And that will assure the security of our crooked elections. We have crooked elections.

And just to be clear, the SAVE Act does not include a ban on mail-in ballots, despite what the president just said there in that clip. But the other part of it has been more controversial. It’s not just a voter ID bill or law that they would like to pass. It’s also something that would require you to show up in person. with some proof of your citizenship. And no, your real ID wouldn’t count. No, you could not just show up with your driver’s license. You would have to bring your passport or your birth certificate. So that’s what’s made this controversial. And I think it’s a real question, a debate to have in this country about whether that is even necessary, Joe.

Yeah, it’s great to have a debate, but we have to remember that 80% of the people have a general understanding about what voter ID is.

[MCG]

I’m going to stop in here because I want to bring in CNN. own research team on the popularity of voter ID in the US. As you’re going to hear from this audio is that it’s popular across demographics. It’s popular along party lines. The only place this is not popular is the Democrats in the House and the Senate. So here’s CNN stats.

[CNN Stats Clip]

Polling on the street and going back since 2018. You’ll notice on all of it, it’s all north of 75%, 76%, 76%, 76%, 81%, and then 83% in the last year of Americans agree with Nicki Minaj. They favor photo ID to be able to vote. What about by party? What’s the party? Yeah, normally you might expect, hey, there’d be a big divide by party with Republicans really for it and Democrats really against it, but not really here. I mean, just take a look here. Favorite photo ID to vote. You got 95% of Republicans, pretty much all of them, but even 71% of Democrats favor photo ID to vote. So again, Nicki Minaj posting that on X. And what you see is, is that the American people, actually, it’s not really all that controversial. The American people are with Nicki Minaj, whether they are Republican or even if they are Democrats, we’re talking about 7 in 10 Democrats agreeing with Nicki Minaj that you in fact should show a voter voter ID to vote. What’s the racial breakdown? Okay, what’s the racial breakdown on this, right? Because I think a lot of people make the argument that people of color, non-white Americans have a harder time procuring a photo ID to vote. But even here, take a look here, favorite photo ID to vote, 85% of white people favorite, 82% of Latino, 76% of black Americans favorite. 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 so something of a non-troversy that’s very good the alliteration of Mr. John Berman that Harvard education paying off once again Harold and thank you thank you much.

[MCG]

All right so there you have it and of course I’m not of Minaj. I don’t follow her music or anything. But I’ll say this, she’s from the Caribbean, just like I’m from the Caribbean. And voter ID in the Caribbean has not been controversial in many decades. Even today, your voter ID is one of the most popular ID you can find in the islands. You can even travel with your voter ID in the islands because they make them very secure and they make them very difficult to obtain in terms of that you have to prove that you’re eligible vote to get that voter ID. I’m a dual citizen. And if I go home to my home country now, which I was born and raised in, I would have to stay there a month, four weeks before I could even register. And when I register, when I go to register, there’s going to be a public announcement that I’m trying to register to vote. And if anyone knows why I shouldn’t be able to vote, can come forward and present evidence that either I don’t live on the island or whatever the case may be. Obviously, because I’m a citizen, once I meet the one month requirement, I will be able to be registered. But no one complains about that because you’re talking about the process of electing who’s going to run your country. So he’s right. I’m not surprised that Nicki Minaj being from Trinidad, doesn’t have a problem with it, but not only that, across racial lines, across party line, across, it’s just not a big issue, except for certain group of people. Anyway, I’m gonna let this guy continue.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

Understanding that, voter ID at some form is in about 25 states. I personally am sick of sort of the circles that we always run where Republicans are saying, you know, this many cases of voter fraud have happened. Democrats will say, well, that’s not indicative of, you know, massive voter fraud. I want to hear where in those 23 or 24, 25 states that have voter ID laws in place already where people are required to show an ID, where is the massive studies of people being disenfranchised? In fact, it’s the opposite is true. You remember, I think it was In 2021, the MLB All-Star Game pulled out of Georgia because Georgia was implementing voter ID and it was going to disenfranchise voters. The number of gubernatorial voters went from the year before 1.1 million to 1.9. Bakari, your state, I looked it up, South Carolina, because I know they’re a voter ID state. They went from 56% voter turnout in the presidential year in 2012 to 61% in 2020 and then like 65% in 2024. Those are more people voting in states that have passed voter ID laws. So this is why I think the majority Americans reasonably can look at it and say, this is a good thing.

You just wasted about 3 minutes and we’re not talking about voter ID.

So they’re saying, the fundamental thing of the SAVE Act is requiring proof of who you are.

That’s 2 different things. So voter ID means that you have to have a driver’s license or you know the real ID that you, that doesn’t count under the SAVE Act. So the SAVE Act, I just want to tell you so the viewers understand, means that you have to have proof of citizenship. You also can’t do those things online. So 42 states out of the 50, since we’re not quoting numbers of states, Their entire online voter registration systems are going to be tossed out the window.

[MCG]

And maybe they should.

[Jay]

I don’t think that’s true, though. I read the SAVE Act, and maybe reading is not fundamental for me, and I need to go back to kindergarten. But from what I understand, real ID compliant IDs are accepted under the SAVE Act.

[MCG]

Well, I think the reason why he’s saying that, and that might be true for some states, but not all, is because illegals, And non-citizens can also get REAL ID because the process to get REAL ID is to provide a Social Security number to the Department of Motor Vehicles along with other stuff. I don’t think citizenship is required for the REAL ID. However, he too is going to be mentioning stuff that are not difficult to obtain.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

Are there going to be some people who may have some difficulties? Yes, but what does the saying go? straining the nothing swirling the commodity or something like that. Mm-hmm. That’s exactly what I find most of these folks are doing.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

It’s gonna cost states like South Carolina money. The other thing is, there are 52% of Americans that are registered to vote right now literally do not have access to an unexpired passport. That’s important. 11% of registered voters right now don’t have access to proof of citizenship. That’s important. Now, we’re just talking about people, black, white, and otherwise, poor folk, whatever, in that number. Right.

[Jay]

I don’t understand that statistic. Why do they not have access to proof of citizenship? I said at the beginning of the podcast that I went through and looked up the official vital records website of almost all the states, and every single one of them had proof. the option for you to order or request a copy of your birth certificate online, available to you within a couple of days. The only one that gave me difficulty was the state of Indiana. And by difficulty, I mean that I had to click more than twice to get to the website where I could order. a birth certificate online. So what exactly is the difficulty there? Why would they not have access? I would have liked to hear him elaborate on that further. And so they’re going to do this multiple times, but they’re going to bring up the significant number of Americans that do not have access to a valid passport. And by do not have access mean they don’t have it in their pockets right now. That would be a problem if a valid passport were the only means of confirming U.S. citizenship, but it is not. So I’m not sure what the hysterics are. I don’t want to say hysterics. I don’t understand what they’re pigeonholing here or what they’re really pressing their finger on, because it’s not that difficult. And you’ll hear Abby Phillip also admit that it’s not that difficult to get a birth certificate.

[MCG]

Well, I’m glad that there’s an opposition to the ruling party, right? Whether the ruling party is Republican or Democrat, I want to have a strong opposition. I wish in the U.S. that there was a third or fourth strong party as well, but we have two. There’s tons of political parties in the U.S., but the two strong ones are the Republicans and Democrats. I’m glad that there is a strong opposition. However, they don’t have anything to oppose in this.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

They have nothing. of substance that I can find that they provide to convince someone like me who will say, hey, convince me that this is wrong. Using reason and logic. Don’t bring in emotions. Don’t bring in all these other things. Use reason and logic. I’m not hearing that. But anyway, I’m going to let him continue.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

I’m going to talk about the discriminatory effect. We’re talking about poor people who don’t have access to those things to be able to get to the DMV, to be able to get to places where you can get a new passport.

Our government expects a lot of us, every single year, every single person is expected to file their taxes, something that is very complicated. You can do it online.

[MCG]

All right, for this young lady here, I’m sorry for her, but she probably was best fit to be in a podcast where she can really elaborate and express herself, because they’re not going to really allow her to express herself. I can understand where she was trying to go, but she’s going to be creamed.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

During COVID, people had to go and get a vaccine in person. I went twice. I had to carry my little. What is that? I had to carry my little card around. No, we’re way off track on this. No, we’re not. The government expects a lot of things that people…

Can I just explain to you the difference?

Can I tell you the difference?

Can I tell you the difference?

Can I just explain to you the fundamental difference? It’s far less onerous. Yes, please. Would you correct me?

The difference is you listed a lot of things. You listed a lot of things in this country that are privileges. We’re not talking about privileges. Voting is a constitutional right. Yes, voting is a constitutional right. Tell me the enumeration in the enumeration of the constitution where it says you must pay this XYZ. We’re not even talking about that. You’re talking about restaurants. You’re talking about vaccinations. You’re talking about all these things. You’re talking about driving. No, we’re talking about the right.

Things where the security is actually much less stringent and much more safety than voting. Can I ask you a question? Can someone vote by affidavit? So even if you don’t have the right ID, you can still vote by after David.

And let me ask you that question.

[MCG]

And this was live TV, my friends. Anyways.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

Why? Why can’t we ask the government to do what they have the ability to do, which is to verify people’s citizenship? Why is the onerous on the person and not the government who is the keeper of the records?

[Jay]

Mm-hmm. First of all, it’s not onerous, it’s onus, okay? And second… The same way that she asks, well, why can’t we ask the government to confirm citizenship is the same reason this young lady is asking, even though she just got beaten up in this particular thing. Why is it that we just assume that Americans can’t get their proof of citizenship?

[MCG]

But here’s the logic, though. It’s 6 and a half a dozen, as we will say, is the same thing. Because let’s say I go to register to vote. and I take my documents to prove that I’m a U.S. citizen, how would they know that the documents are true? Wouldn’t they have to compare that to something?

[Jay]

Exactly.

[MCG]

Wouldn’t they have to, let’s say I take my internationalization certificate. They look at it and they say, oh, okay, this look valid. But I would imagine that they would look at it and say, okay, is this forged? Or whatever the case may be, if I take my passport, they will still have to authenticate it. They will still have to authenticate my passport.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

So 6 and a half a dozen, because if now I just take my name and maybe my driver’s license, since they don’t have a problem with driver’s license, and just blankly say I’m a U.S. citizen, and they look it up, they’re still validating that you’re a U.S. citizen. So 6 and a half does the same thing. Obviously, the reason why they’re changing is because the current system does not work. Because when you can register online without proving that you’re a US citizen, you can lie and say that you’re a US citizen, and you can use a false social security number, and whatever the case may be, and states, because they don’t have the mandate to prove it, things can fall through the cracks. And that’s what the SAVAC is trying to clean up. Before I became a citizen, I remember a young man standing at the chain depot asking people if they register to vote and if they want to register to vote. And right now on the spot, people could register to vote. Stuff like that needs to stop. We had, I think it was 2020 or even 2024 election. We had people going from door to door in college communities, asking people if they’re registered to vote. And if not, they’re registered to vote on the spot. Stuff like that needs to stop. That’s what the Save America Act is going to prevent. All these nonsense that’s going on where they registered to vote where you can just declare that you’re a U.S. citizen. For me and the state I live in, I think you had to verify you had to vote, you’re a U.S. citizen. I registered to vote at my nationalization ceremony. At the nationalization ceremony, they gave us a paper registration to fill out. Obviously, we are becoming U.S. citizen at that point, and that’s one of our civil duty, and they were more than eager to give us their registration to vote. But no one, look at my driver’s license. No one validate anything I put on there, at least when I turn it in. Maybe by the time it got put in the system, they validate something. I don’t know. But I don’t see anything wrong or not any difficulties in updating these things. Anyways. Abby Phillip continues.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

If you have to show some proof and then the government can match it against the database, I’m fine with that.

That’s what you were talking about. That’s exactly how the system works right now.

Abby…

Right now, hold on.

Yeah.

Right now in the United States of America…

[MCG]

No, that’s not how the system work right now. How the system work right now is that every state cannot do whatever they want. Mm-hmm.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

This has been true for 25 years. You, when you’re applying for a vote to vote to register to vote, you have to produce either an ID or a social security number. The government is then…

Not in the state, not in the state.

The government, the government, that is a, that’s a federal law. That’s a federal law. Every state, okay? When you’re registering…

You don’t need an ID here.

You give any… I mean, when you are registering to…

[MCG]

The verification process is different by the state. Yes, you have to provide… your social security number, blah, blah, blah. But the verification process is what the SAFE Act is changing. Because a lot of states, as long as they provide a social security number, they don’t have to verify that you’re a citizen. And many of them don’t.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

Register to vote for the first time. When you register to vote for the first time, you have to supply either an ID or a social security number. The government is the keeper of the records of who is eligible to vote and who is not, who is a citizen and who is not. They then keep a database, that’s also part of the law, and they check against the database. I also think we should just keep in mind here, The Trump administration has already asked for voter records from a bunch of states. They got 50 million voter records. These are largely Republican states where they’ve got voter ID. They looked at the records, and guess what they found? They found almost no actual evidence of fraud. However, even in their — even if you — let’s just take what they did find. Out of 50 million records, they found 10,000 that raised flags. So, even in the states where there’s voter ID, they’re still finding flags, Not proof of fraud. But it’s also, when they look even deeper, a lot of times these are…

[MCG]

No, she doesn’t even tell us what the flags are. But anyways…

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

False flags. These are people who actually are registered properly to vote, that the system is flagging.

Abby, does this save action allowed?

So the Trump administration has had a whole year to look at this. They’ve looked, 50 million records. They’ve found virtually nothing, .02%. And yet 80% of the public says that you’re not the right.

Just answer one question. If someone doesn’t have an ID under the SAVE Act, are they permitted to vote affidavit via an affidavit? Are they permitted to vote? Can they vote?

I think the answer is yes.

This is so overblown. It is not overblown. Someone cannot produce the ID.

They can go to their policy. I don’t even think you have a command of an issue. Right now, you don’t, you’re talking about voter ID and that’s not, we’re talking about the SAVE Act specifically.

If you don’t have to vote under the SAVE Act, you can vote via affidavit.

We’ve heard a lot from you, so let me just try again. less than half of the American people have what it would take to comply with that’s a problem that’s a huge problem exactly so when you think about married women like we were talking about during the break who they changed their last name when they get married let me have the professional now we’re talking about trans this is ridiculous stay on the point thank you please thank you anyway.

[MCG]

I’m going to come back to the woman stuff because I have stuff to play on that but I’m going to let it finish okay um.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

This is a problem that is in search, or a solution that’s in search of a problem. There is not some outpouring of undocumented immigrants trying to vote, and that’s what this is all about. If more than half the people do not have the documents to support this act, it is clearly an intimidation tactic. We heard from Donald Trump talking about nationalizing elections. We heard from Steve Bannon, who went to prison, Trump’s advisor, saying they’re gonna have ICE patrols at election points. All of this is meant to limit the amount of people to vote. point. If you wanted to ensure every American could vote, then the government.

[MCG]

So if there’s no, according to you, illegals and non-citizen voting, why is it a problem if they put ICE agents at the voting poll? You probably should complain that they’re wasting the government money because…

[Jay]

She said the choir part out loud.

[MCG]

They’re sitting there and they don’t have any work to do because there won’t be any illegals to arrest. So maybe we can change the argument and say, hey, Maybe we should not waste the federal government money by putting ICE agents at the polling booth because there won’t be any illegals there. But you’re complaining that they’re there, but you’re also saying that no one will be there for them to arrest. So which one?

[Jay]

Which one is it?

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

We should expect things from our government, not about what the government.

It’s the same argument that people made about voter ID laws in all of the states.

People would have only the age of 18 for when they’re naturalized. If you want to encourage more people to vote.

That’s how you do. This is the same argument, the same argument that people used in every one of the 20-something states that have voter ID. Just tell me which state implemented some form of voter ID, voter registration rules. And we still don’t know. We still don’t know why they were messing with.

It goes right back to what Abby was just talking about. Now, if they have researched all of this and they have found minimal pieces, most of these, I mean, minimist, the legal, legal, and so my point is, but my point is that if this is really a pretext, to suppress voting, then everybody at this table should be concerned about that.

Because you’re making that up. Because of the market. No, no, no, I’m not. 80% of America is on my side. Oh, no, no.

I don’t know what 80% you’re talking about.

I don’t think that happens at this table, but this time, 80% of Americans don’t vote.

So the Democracy depends on people voting. So Joe is right. 83% of Americans, according to… a Gallup poll, this was back in October, say that they agree that Americans should be required to provide proof of citizenship. We’re going to continue this conversation after the break, but I think it’s worth noting that the how and why of that, right, matters, right? How do you provide the records? That’s what’s at issue here with the SAVE Act. We’ll be right back after a quick break.

[Jay]

The why of it, we already know the why of it, because We have reason to believe that our elections are not as secure as they can be. We have seen extensive amounts of illegal immigration, fraud, and other concerning things happening on all levels of our government. And it’s only reasonable to want to secure the election. So I think we should just throw why out of the window. We all know why. If we want to have a discussion about how, sure. But the why is a foregone conclusion, I think.

[MCG]

The problem is that they don’t agree with the why, but they don’t want to say that. So they hold on to strawman arguments to try to combat something that seems pretty much common sense to most folks.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

But anyways, we’ll come back an early end. She will explain her why. and then I will have some count and some stats to it you’re listening to the removing virus podcast we’re discussing the save America Act we’ll be right back.

[Jay]

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[MCG]

All right, we’re back. And this is the second part of the CNN discussion with Abby Phillip. So she’s going to introduce a second part and they’re going to continue the discussion.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

We are back, and we were just discussing the SAVE Act and the new citizenship requirements that it would put into place. Now, the big issue, as I was saying right before the break, is not just should there be citizenship requirements, but also how they are supposed to happen. One of the problems is the distances people would have to travel in order to produce the citizenship requirement in person. If you live in Arizona, from Colorado City, Arizona, to Mojave, Arizona, the elections office there, it would take eight hours round trip to…

[MCG]

No, I don’t know much about Arizona, and I don’t know anything about where you go vote in Arizona. But quite honestly, I don’t believe what she’s saying here. You want to tell me the closest place for you to register to vote is that everyone has to drive four hours to go and register to vote. So why is it they can’t do it at the Department of Motor Vehicles that most states allow you to do it?

[Jay]

They have to make it as unbelievable and as exaggerated as possible in order to drum up support for a position that they have that’s basically indefensible.

[MCG]

No, I haven’t researched this, but I just don’t believe it. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe she’s right, but I don’t believe it.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

Go and produce the documents that you would need to produce. And I actually wonder if Republicans, maybe they do know this, but they understand that this probably won’t pass. should not be more worried about this. Look at the top 10 states where the lowest person…

[MCG]

Before she gets in the top 10, so let me add this, because before I became a citizen of this country, in order for me to get a driver’s license in the state that I live in, I had to prove that I have legal standard in the country, that I’m legal in the country. I don’t remember what year it was, but I was renewing my driver’s license, and the state I live in had changed the requirements for non-citizens to get their driver’s license, because according to the DHS, USCIS, there were some fraud going on with the cards that they give you, what is the employment authorization card or whatever the case may be. They claimed that those were being forged and being sold on the black market. I went to the DNV and I have all my documents, including my EOD card that the Department of Homeland Security sent me to prove that I can work in the country and I can stay in the country. The DMV office said they cannot accept that alone because of them being sold on the black market. And you know the DMV, how long the lines are and the wait time and everything. So I got up to the window. I had to go back home and get a letter that they send me from the DHS showing that I did apply, and they were giving me the benefit of the EOD card. Went back, stood in line, got up to the window again. And the person there refused to give me my driver’s license, claiming that the letter says that they will be granted me the EOD card. And I said to her, yes, it said they will be granting it to me. And I have the card showing that they granted it to me. I was there probably for 30 minutes. And it took the manager, one of her manager, to come up and in five seconds say, give the young man his driver’s license. I wasn’t even trying to register to vote. I was trying to get a driver’s license, renew my driver’s license. I already had one. I was trying to renew it. Mm-hmm. And the difficulties I had to go through there. But yet, to register to vote appears to be way easier than to get a simple driver’s license. So, what’s your point, Abby, anyways?

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

A percentage of people have passports. They’re all Trump-voting states, every single one of them, from West Virginia to South Dakota. These are all states where more than half of the citizens don’t have passports and…

[MCG]

Do they have birth certificate, Abby?

[Jay]

That’s what I mean. Like, they have to exaggerate it and make it sound as dire as possible. And as I said earlier, that would only matter if a valid passport were the only form of U.S. citizenship authentification that they would actually accept. But it’s not. So this is a moot point. This doesn’t even matter.

[MCG]

Not only that, they can travel on their driver’s license.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

Let’s go to the reason why most Americans don’t have a passport. They probably want to claim it because, you know, West Virginia, they’re poor over there or Mississippi.

[Jay]

They’re backward over there.

[MCG]

They’re poor over there. It’s not that. The real reason is that you can live all your life in America without exploring America.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

And you can go on vacation in America that is completely different from where you live. You can go to Hawaii, you get the tropical island feeling. You can go to Arizona, you get the desert. You can go to Florida and get beaches. You can go to West Virginia and get the mountains or Colorado and get the Rockies. There’s so many places to go in America where you can have a true vacation without leaving the mainland. That’s why most Americans don’t have a passport compared to the islands where a lot of people may have passports because what? You take your hour to drive around the island. So people want to go on vacation, they leave the island. It requires a passport. In America, when people want to go on vacation, they jump in their car and they drive, or they jump on the plane using their driver’s license or their real ID, and they can fly five hours away and still be in America. The first time I got on a plane, I flew for 25 minutes from one Caribbean island to the next. The plane didn’t even have time to straighten up. Literally, it went up, seatbelt sign didn’t even come off, and by the time the plane was supposed to straighten up, the intercom come over, please prepare for landing. That’s not what it is in America. If you live in New York, it’s a five-hour flight to California. You’re in a complete different environment. So it’s not because they don’t want to have a passport. It’s because they probably don’t have a need because they don’t care to go to another country, so to speak. Anyways.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

So if they don’t have passports, they would have to produce a birth certificate. That’s going to be a barrier to a lot of these voters who are probably Trump supporters.

[Jay]

It’s not.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

Look, I think we have a lot of faith in people, that they can figure it out. People are smart. I think we have faith in our constituency. And I would also note that the act does allow some discretion to the states. And there’s incidents that happen all the time. What if your birth certificate is in a fire? You can get a new one. There are ways. Have you ever tried to?

Get a new birth certificate.

I actually have.

Tell us about the process.

I was able to get a real idea.

[MCG]

The process is to go to the DMV, pay them $12 to do a document search, at least in my state, and in no time they print your birth certificate. It’s not that difficult.

[Jay]

Not that difficult, and if you would rather not do it in person, you could do it online. Almost all the states use vitalcheck.com. That’s V-I-T-A-L-C-H-E-K.com, and they will receive all of your documentation online and mail you your birth certificate, and you don’t have to leave your computer room in your house. So it’s really not that difficult.

[MCG]

The biggest barrier for me when I I went to the DMV to get my son’s birth certificate, the guy was constantly apologizing because he was asking me, are you the biological father? Are you the biological father? Yes, dude, I am the biological father. But it wasn’t as big a deal as I’m making it to be. He was very apologetic. He said, this is questions we have to ask everybody, whatever the case may be. But it’s not that difficult to get a birth certificate.

[Jay]

She’s going to admit this later. We’ll see that.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

It worked out.

Right. Did you get your birth certificate?

It was what I was in college.

This was a while ago, but I mean, because I mean, because but look, I mean, and you also have resources to get, if you get, listen, I’m not saying it’s obviously not impossible to get your birth certificate, but it’s not, it’s not something.

[Jay]

I don’t know if you heard after when she said, that was a long time ago, I was in college, and then they all kind of laughed and spoke there. One of them said, oh, and you also had the resources to go and get your certificate. I don’t know if you probably have it queued up, but there was a journalist, I think his name was Amy Horowitz, who interviewed people like Abby Phillip and the Democrats that think like her, interviewed them about why they oppose voter ID, citizenship for registration, and all that sort of thing. And they repeat the same talking points. Well, it disenfranchises people. People can’t get their birth certificate. They don’t have the resources to, they don’t know how to use a computer, the mayor of New York once said. Was it the mayor? I think it was the mayor.

[MCG]

No, the governor.

[Jay]

The governor said.

[MCG]

She didn’t say, Black kids.

[Jay]

Black kids don’t even know, they don’t know these things.

[MCG]

They don’t even know what a computer is.

[Jay]

Computer is. Oh my goodness. And so he gathers all of this information and he goes into what you would call, say, the inner city or where black people live. And he says, hey, you know, do you have an ID? And every single one of them are like, yeah, you know, of course I have an ID. Do you know where to go get your ID? And oh yeah, the DMV’s over on this street, that street, go there. They know exactly how to get one. And when people ask him, well, why are you asking these questions? And he has to tell them that the reason why people are opposed to voter ID or the SAFE Act altogether is because they don’t believe that black people have the resources or the ability or the know-how to go get ID, which is highly offensive, deeply insulting.

[MCG]

Well, two points here. I think you and I know a lot of black people being black ourselves. But I don’t know of any black person that don’t have an ID.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

Right. All my black friends, black family, you know, my in-laws, of course, most of my family is in the Caribbean, but my in-laws that are mostly in Florida, I don’t know of any one of them that don’t have an ID. That’s one. And 2. I always find it so, I don’t know, insulting is a word, but they don’t realize the racist comment they make it by trying not to be racist.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

By saying that, hey, because you’re black, you don’t know what it is, you can’t use a computer, you can’t get an ID, you don’t have an ID. To me, it’s saying, well, because I’m white, I’m superior to you and I know these things where you don’t. And then saying, oh, they don’t have the means. Okay, there’s about 45 million black people in the United States of America. And I think they say about half of that population, or maybe a little bit less than half. Don’t hold me on this text, but I think it’s a little bit less than half of that. So probably about 20 million. So there’s 45 million blacks population, about 20 million or so are below the public line, right? They said there’s about 150 to 160 million white people living in the United States. A smaller percentage, not quite close to 50%, but it’s 45 million, about 45 million of the white people live below the property line. So if you’re looking at raw numbers instead of percentage, because a lot of times they use percentage because the percentage is higher for the blacks.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

Right. But if you look at raw numbers, the amount of white people in the US that are living below the public line, they call it the federal public line. Now, if you go to places like Mexico and some places in the Caribbean, that won’t be poverty. But anyways, I digress. But anyway, according to the federal poverty line, about 45 million white people are living below the poverty line. There are about 45 million black people in the country and about 20 million are below the public line. So a greater percentage. But who would have the harder time. If you’re talking about means, let’s take the 20 million black people, compare that to the 45 million white people. Well, 45 million white people would be disenfranchised compared to 20 million black people. Of course, you can say, the 20 million represent 50%. Yeah, I understand the percentage, but if you look at the raw numbers, more white people are going to be affected if that’s the problem. So why is it we’re saying that black people can’t do this, but we can’t do that?

[Jay]

Well, let’s take it a bit further. Most of the black people live in the inner city or in the cities anyway, and so if they needed to go get their ID, they have a better chance and ability to go and get it, as opposed to the people that Abby Phillip are apparently talking about that live 8 hours from their nearest, from their nearest.

[MCG]

Yeah, compared to the code on code rednecks.

[Jay]

Exactly. So either way you slice it. And that’s even for fun. That’s for giggles. That’s not even real. But even on its face, it’s completely silly what she’s about to say here. But go ahead.

[MCG]

Anyways.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

That happens in the blink of an eye. It’s not. You sometimes have to go to county officials, even hospitals to try to get the records. It costs money. It costs. I mean, I think that. I’m just all I’m pointing out.

But that would be for getting a driver’s license.

Hold on a second. That’s not a no. It’s not a driver’s license.

[MCG]

Anyways.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

It’s not, first of all, it’s not true of getting a driver’s license. You can get a driver’s license that is not a Real ID that does not require your birth certificate. But also, let’s talk about Real ID for a second. Do you remember how long it took for Real ID to actually become a thing in this country? It took 17 years because it kept getting pushed back because people couldn’t But not only that.

But not only that.

But people figured it out, maybe we should expect more people. Even to this day, you go to the airport and because so many people don’t have real IDs, they’re like, all right, you can fly with one. You just have to pay us $45.

But not only that, I mean, you have people don’t even understand the cost to the states. I mean, just, I mean, it’s as if people just see something and they’re saying, oh my God, we need to tighten up voting parameters to keep illegals or whatever from voting. But people don’t ever turn the page. And when we’re talking talking about turning the page, there’s one thing that’s very tangible. When you talked about people getting driver’s license or states that have voter ID, what those states also did was make those identification cards free. They had to.

[MCG]

Well, maybe we can make the federal government pay for it, AKA all of us.

[Jay]

Since we’re already suggesting that the federal government has to be the one to authenticate everything, why is the onus on us and why can’t it be on the federal government? May as well make them pay for it, make them do everything, which is kind of in line with the whole democratic idea of turning to the government for everything. Go ahead.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

They had to waive it. That cost states millions of dollars to implement. They should hear, by the way. They actually will have to shut down systems because you cannot do this online. We’re talking about people driving and doing this. And so that’s one thing. The other thing is…

[Jay]

I don’t understand why they keep saying that. You can’t do this online. Why do they keep saying that? That’s simply not true.

[MCG]

Well, doesn’t the safe accident they have to present… proof of citizenship to the person who’s resident to vote. They’re not saying that you can’t get your birth certificate online. I think they’re saying that you can’t register to vote online, I assume?

[Jay]

Okay, but it also says in the second paragraph, following that paragraph about presenting it in person, but there’s also a paragraph about the state alerting people to their need for a birth certificate after the ballot has been mailed in or after something about being mailed in. So now I can understand why they would automatically go to, hey, you have to physically be there in person, but the very following paragraph allows for a remote sort of presentation of that citizenship proof? Or am I just misreading the law or the bill?

[MCG]

I don’t know, but I’ll say this. I have been working remotely from since COVID, and I recently changed jobs probably a year ago or so now. And of course, when you’re newly hired, you have to do something called e-verify. Most companies are required to see proof that you are authorized to work in the country, whether it’s through a citizenship or to some document from the Department of Homeland Security. And what they did was that they asked me to scan my documents in, which I… I guess they go to argue that some of these folks don’t have phones, so they can’t take a picture of their documents, or they don’t have printers with scanners, so they can’t scan it in their computers. But what I did was that they asked me to send them proof of work authorization, whether it’s through my passport or whatever the case may be, that I’m a citizen and I’m allowed to work. And what they did after that was that they hold a meeting with me where cameras were on, and they take the picture that I send them, and they can compare that picture, that ID, with my Face with the cameras on, and I also have to hold up the same ID that I scanned to them to the camera, and that satisfies the requirements of them verifying that. one, I’m authorized to work in the country, and the ID that I send them is a true ID of me. That can work.

[Jay]

Okay, here’s the actual text of the SAVE Act here. This looks like it’s paragraph two, if I’m reading it correctly. Notification of requirement. Upon receiving an otherwise completed mail voter registration application form prescribed by the Election Assistance Commission pursuant to Section 9A2, or a form described in paragraph one or two of subsection A, the appropriate election official shall transmit a notice to the the applicant of the requirement to present documentary proof of the United States citizenship under this subsection and shall include in the notice instructions to enable the applicant to meet the requirement. That sounds to me like they’re allowing for situations where you can’t physically present proof of your citizenship, but you can provide documentation by other means. And the state or the voting official, which is run by the state, would provide the notice of instructions to enable the applicant to meet the requirement.

[MCG]

I can guarantee you that more than 75% of the folks on this panel have not read what you read in entirety. They heard of the act. They know that he has passed. They watched some videos about it, but they have never read the act. I can guarantee you that. I remember I was having a discussion. Again, I don’t go around defending President Trump or any politician, but he was saying something that President Trump said, and I knew, I listened to the speech in entirety. And I knew the context that President Trump said what he said. Instead of contradicting what he said or challenging what he said, I simply asked him, did you listen to the speech in his entirety? And he calmed down and he said, no. And I said, I did. And the context that he said it in was not the context you just put it in. Because what he said, he could take it out of context and make it mean whatever you want to mean. I don’t know anyone on this panel, but I can guarantee you, I believe that 75% of them have not read the Save America Act as it is outlined. I don’t think they have read it. They’re just basically, I’m Democrat and I need to oppose it. That’s the impression I’m getting here. Anyways, he shall continue.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

Historical point that people somewhat disregard. And I think, and I’m not sure that you, that I’m not sure that you understand the historical consequence to what you’re saying when you’re saying that we should expect more from people or people will have to jump over these cars. Because there are groups of people in this country that traditionally, and this is, this is a moment of empathy that I think we can both see eye to eye on, that there are people.

[Jay]

Here it comes, where’s my violin? Here we go, the race and the all my ancestors and all we had to do. Here it comes, where’s my violin? Here, we go. Okay, go ahead.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

People in this country who for historically have had to jump over hurdle after hurdle after hurdle after hurdle. There have been people, one second, Joe. There have been people who have died. There have been people who’ve laid on jailhouse floors. There have been people who were beaten just so they could have the franchise. And we’ve heard before. You should be able to read a literacy test. You should be able to drive here. You should be able to do that. I think we should start from a point of how do we allow more people into the process instead of the point of how do we restrict it. I didn’t mean to cut you off.

I was cutting you off.

I know.

I’ve known you a long time. I didn’t know you in 2011, 2012 when you were state senator. I imagine, I imagine you had the same arguments, the same conversations as South Carolina implemented these similar voter ID laws. I imagine some of the things you said tonight, you could have said verbatim back then.

True.

And the net result, and then undeniable, the net result is that turnout increased in South Carolina after voter ID laws. The differences. It went from 56% to I think it’s 65%.

Very in the weeds, very in the weeds. Many of the states that have passed voter ID. I mean, one of the most stringent, if you look at ALEC, you look at all this stuff, Indiana was the first state to pass voter ID. What they did, though, however, was they allowed you to utilize things like a utility bill. They allowed you to utilize things like a college ID. So there were other mechanisms in place. So my point is.

[MCG]

Anyone that can produce an electric bill should be able to produce other stuff because If you’re illegal, I doubt you will have any…

[Jay]

Electric bill in your name. Exactly. Right.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

The point is, why are we tightening this noose around people when… I mean, just simply… Why can’t we do it online? Why can’t you do it online?

[Jay]

We’re tightening the noose because the previous administration allowed for an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants to flood into the nation. And there has been instances of fraud, both election and other kinds of fraud, where they are participating in the things that should only be reserved for citizens of that nation, of our nation. That’s why the noose needs to, and I hate using the word noose in light of the whole racial thing that he just kind of brought up there, but that’s why we have to tighten and button up a little bit.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

People want this.

I think the point is.

You’re telling people don’t want the SAVE Act?

People are saying they support voter ID. The SAVE Act is very different. And when you say leave it to the states, I mean, this is what happens when they gutted voting rights. This is what happened. If I’m going to leave it to states like Arizona, Georgia, when Brian Kemp was in office in Georgia, if you’re going to leave it to states like that.

The voter turnout increased, right? That did happen. It went from 1.1 to 1.9, that’s only double for hours. Almost double the amount of people voting.

OK, no, let me let the judge have a second. Let me also say something. You’re saying that in an isolated thing. There are other factors that increase the Turner vote out.

You’re not that even. You’re not backing who’s running, you’re not backing who’s in line. They wouldn’t be able to vote. That didn’t happen, but I think. Oh, it did, though, Joe.

It did in Georgia.

That’s another topic.

[MCG]

It doesn’t matter what the fact that they draw the people to the poll. The fact is, what he’s saying is that they implement voter ID and the numbers in a decrease, it went up. And according to you guys’ logic, it should have gone down. Capiche? For another time.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

All right. It very much is. We appreciate the robust debate about the policy here. Everyone, thank you very much for being here. Still ahead, Jane Fawn.

[MCG]

Anyways, that’s where you have it, folks. Let me just say this because Abby Phillip did mention something about, you know, the minute amount of fraud I guess or flags that they found when Trump team reviewed many states they got voter records from so I decided to ask doc AI has there been any federal election results where someone won by 10,000 votes or less because she said it was around 10,000 people right so we know and these are not quite 10,000 but Joe Biden won Arizona by about 10.5,000 votes, right? That was a key state for him. Also, Florida, 13th District in 2014, Republican David Jolley defeated Democrat Alex Sink by approximately 3,400 votes in a special election. North Carolina, 9th District in 2018, Mark Harris led Dan McCready by about 905 votes. And then, of course, we have Minnesota in 2008. Al Franken defeated Norm Coleman by just 312 votes. And I think even in Colorado, what’s the name, the representative from Colorado, if she’s still there?

[Jay]

I forget her name.

[MCG]

Bolbert or something, Bolden or something like that.

[Jay]

Lauren Boebert.

[MCG]

Yeah, she won, what, by 300 or something votes. So yes, if there’s fraud to the point of 10,000, that can determine a lot. that can determine a lot. Even if it’s just a small number, we will want to clean up. So I don’t agree with that. But anyways, I have House Representative Underwood from Illinois. He’s her take on the vote in the House on why she’s opposing the Save America Act.

[Jay]

Okay.

[Rep. Underwood]

Republicans are trying to make it harder for you for you to vote, let me tell you how. The Save America Act would require your passport or your birth certificate to match your current name in order to be able to vote. If y’all got married and changed your name, your birth certificate would not match your current name. Nearly 69 million women in America have a birth certificate that does not match their current name therefore 69 million American women would no longer be eligible to vote. These guys say that the Save America Act is needed to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting, but y’all already know that that is not a thing. What this really is, it’s a voter suppression bill to keep lawfully voting American citizens from being able to exercise their foundational right to vote. I’m obviously voting no. But I just want you guys to know that this is serious, and it’s happening right now, ahead of the critical 2026 midterm elections.

[Jay]

How would it benefit the Republican Party to alienate 69 million voters the 69 million women that she mentioned that would be automatically unable to vote because they couldn’t possibly figure out a way to make sure that their names are matching throughout their documents. So the 69 million female voters that she’s talking about and the 21 million voters that the guy in the first video was talking about and all of the Trump voting states that Abby Phillip was pointing out, how could it possibly benefit the Republican Party stop all of those people from voting. They’d never be able to win.

[MCG]

Yeah.

[Jay]

That makes some sense.

[MCG]

Abby Phillips showed that the 10 Republican states are the states with the highest number of people without passports. So therefore, Republicans would be, by her logic, I don’t agree with her logic, but by her logic, Republicans would mostly affected states of people.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

By her logic, all 69 million married women in the U.S. must be Republicans. Mm-hmm. But there’s a leader of it. I am convinced that Democrats believe that women, Black people, and other minorities are dumb. Now, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I know, when we got married, you never had a problem getting your birth certificate. You never had a problem getting your passport. Mm-hmm. And I wasn’t even a citizen when we got married.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

And you took my last name.

[Jay]

Yep.

[MCG]

I can’t remember you having any issues.

[Jay]

None.

[MCG]

With it. Secondly, there’s something called a marriage certificate. You can use that to prove your new last name.

[Jay]

You bigot. How dare you suggest such a thing?

[MCG]

Correct me again if I’m wrong. When we got married, you went to the Social Security office to get a new Social Security.

[Jay]

Card with my new name on it. was not a big deal.

[MCG]

What did you use to prove your new last name?

[Jay]

Use my marriage certificate.

[MCG]

Exactly. So what’s the big deal here?

[Jay]

And again, it’s not a big deal.

[MCG]

If you don’t have your marriage certificate and if you don’t have your birth certificate, What state you were born in, you contact that state and you get your birth certificate. And whatever state you were married in, you go to that state, you get a marriage certificate. It’s not that difficult, people. So if they want to register to vote and you believe that is truly a barrier, it’s not that difficult to get. But here is Exhibit A, why I think Republicans, sorry, not Republicans, they think we’re different things, but Democrats think that we’re dumb.

[Gavin Newsom]

I’m not, you know, I’m not trying to impress you. I’m just trying to impress upon you. I’m like you. I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy. And you know, and I’m not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 940. But literally a 960 SAT guy. I cannot, you’ve never seen me read a speech. because I cannot read a speech.

[MCG]

All right, so if you don’t know who that was, that was Gavin Newsom, governor, the present governor of California. And he’s saying, I’m like you black people, because you’re speaking to a group of black people. I’m like you black people. I got a 960 SAT. Sometimes, you know what I should do? I should take stuff like this. and ask AI to change your voice and make it Trump. Because if Trump had said that, again, not defending Trump.

[Jay]

How many people would have flown off the handle?

[MCG]

It would have been in the news for the last four weeks, however long Gavin Newsom said this. So the mark of being like black people is getting a poor SAT score. It’s not being able to read a speech.

[Jay]

Not able to get any type of voter.

[MCG]

Not able to go online and get a birth certificate.

[Jay]

Not knowing what a computer is.

[MCG]

To get a marriage certificate or whatever the case may be. Is the mark of being black in this country, being poor? That’s what they think of you. And that’s mainly coming from one party. Again, I’m not a person that likes to go along party line or even identify myself by a party. But the truth is the truth. And what I’m seeing coming out mostly from the Democratic Party in terms of racism, and they don’t want to cry racism the most, if I’m going to choose to be offended, the Democrat Party offends me more than the Republican Party. Because according to Garmin Newsom, I shouldn’t be able to read a speech. According to Garmin Newsom, I should have gotten $900 less on.

[Jay]

On the SAT.

[MCG]

SAT. Granted, I’ve never taken the SAT. I don’t know how difficult it is or not. I was born and raised and educated in the Caribbean, so there’s a different system there. But for my Caribbean brothers and sisters who might be listening, I did the Caribbean Examination Council exam at the end of fifth form. I think by all standards, I did pretty well. I don’t know how that compares to the SAC because I’ve never looked it up. I don’t know anything about the SAC or the ACT. But if that’s the demarcation of being black, poor SAT scores, not having money to do anything, all these things, they have a very poor view of you. And I think that’s a problem. Yeah. Anyways, my final clip. This is the Scott Jennings clip I mentioned earlier. And Scott Jennings is going to be asking a simple question. How? Here is Scott Jenny, and this is actually Abby Phillip, CNN Newsnight, but a different episode of it.

[CNN NewsNight Clip]

He is actually championing a bill that actually would take voting rights away from a lot of black people in this country. Wait, what voting rights is he taking away from black voters? If we look at the say, that’s exactly what we’re talking about. That is actually going to continue to disenfranchise overwhelmingly a lot of people of color. There are so many civil rights organizations that have run the data. If we look at the way that it is going to disenfranchise black voters, it’s the same reason why Chuck Schumer called Jim Crow 2.0. It’s the same president. We want to continue. I am talking about it. It’s putting new poll taxes on this when you’re making people have. That’s what we can call them now. It’s it’s kind of an idiom, right? If you want to say that people have to prove that they are citizens, that they have to prove with a voter ID, the reality is you’re layering what is a constitutional right for the American people and making it harder for people to vote in this country. And it’s going to concern you.

That you’re making all these claims. You’ve yet to lay out how it’s hurting anyone, but 76% of black voters think We should show an ID to vote. 80% of Hispanic voters, 83% of the American people. Are you saying that black voters are too dumb to know what’s good for them? I mean, it sounds pretty condescending, what I mean?

We get three quarters of black voters who want voter IDs.

But to be clear, the SAVE Act is not just about IDs. The SAVE Act is about proof of citizenship. So what? I actually– It also makes it very hard for women to married women who– We talked about young people. It’s not, it actually, there’s an argument to be made that red state voters, women, poor white voters could be just as.

I know, you think they’re dumb too, don’t you?

Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing. I hear these arguments.

I’ve heard Democrats all week long. Please, don’t. No, you listen. There’s a deflection from talking about oncoms racism. I’m actually tired. You should be thinking about your constituents and, or your.

I think they’re smart enough to figure out how to register to vote.

Hold on, hold on. Most Americans don’t have a passport. Many Americans don’t have access to their birth certificate. Many women, a majority of women who change their names for marriage have to provide additional proof that they’ve changed their lives in order to register.

I’ve heard Democrats.

Why don’t you actually respond to the substance of what I’m saying? I am. And as opposed to making this about something that it’s not. You’re saying it’s not just about married women. It’s also about black voter access.

And rural people are too stupid to figure out how to register.

No, that’s not what she said. Let me offer the proof. Let me offer. Are you saying it is a fact that a majority of Americans do not have passports. Many Americans, including white people, okay, do not have their original birth certificate or access. You didn’t say what you said rural. I would love to offer the proof of it. Yeah, because that is also relevant. It doesn’t matter to me where people are.

I guess I have a little more faith in rural America and married women.

I don’t know why you’re making this about whether you’re smart or not. You’re saying that they can’t vote, that they can’t figure out how to document to retro to vote. Access to documentation of proof of where you were born or proof of citizenship is an additional thing that people- Because the health plan is that black people actually trying to allow barriers, you know?

It’s a barrier.

It is a barrier.

[Jay]

What is the alternative?

[MCG]

It’s a barrier, but it’s a barrier that’s easily removed, easily removed. If Gavin knew someone’s exhibit A, this was exhibit B, ’cause there is black people on the panel, a black host, and they basically say, Well, women can’t get it, and black people can’t get it, and poor people can’t get it. I’m sorry. I came to this country, and within a week, I had a state ID. As a non-citizen, I was able to get a state ID. We came, we registered for college. The college practice in the bus, basically as much as the bus can take at a time, drove us to the DNV and we fill out some paperwork and they gave us a state ID. It wasn’t a driver’s license, it was just a state ID because they want all of us have a state ID. Within two weeks, I had a social security number because I was planning to work on campus as a non-citizen. It’s not that difficult, people.

[Jay]

I find it incredibly offensive and just a sad way to be in a country where There are literally people who would look at you and think you don’t know how to use a computer and put in your information and request your And notice the sleight of hand that she would use there as well, because she said, oh, there’s a significant percentage, I forget what percentage she said, percentage of people who don’t have access to their original birth certificate, as though the original birth certificate is actually what’s needed in order to prove citizenship. You don’t need your original birth certificate. You can get a copy, an authenticated copy, and that would work just fine. But see, people just hear original birth certificate, and automatically they fall into victim status, like, oh, you’re right, I just can’t. this is so awful. Why are you doing this to me? And they don’t even listen to what she’s actually saying. That’s a great way to talk a lot and say nothing. The fact that she kept harping on the point, I shouldn’t say harping, that’s not nice, but she kept emphasizing the point of, oh, 70 or 50 or whatever percent of Americans don’t have passports. Okay, fine, you don’t need a passport. You can get your birth certificate. Oh, well, this percentage doesn’t have their original birth certificate. which is a little bit of a sleight of hand that she played there, as if to say that if you lost your original birth certificate, there’s absolutely nothing you can do and you’re disenfranchised for life. It’s just not true. I think that we’re tired, as the American people, of being lied to and gaslighted and treated as though we can’t figure out what you’re trying to say to us, when it’s just simply not true. I, for one, am over it. Black people are not as stupid as you would like to suppose. Black people are not as helpless as you would like to suppose. And we don’t need you to pander to us and use past injustices in order to further your progressive ideals and your progressive ideology. Stop using us as your backstop in order to advance your ridiculous ideas. We’re sick of it. We don’t need it anymore. We’re done. We’re through. Nothing that you’re saying makes sense. Voter ID is not controversial among the populace. Overwhelming majority of people want it. 90-something percent of Republicans want it. 70-something, almost 83% of Democrats want it. This shouldn’t even be a discussion, and yet here we are.

[MCG]

Well, I think it’s 75% of Democrats want it, and 83% overall want it.

[Jay]

Oh, overall, okay, gotcha.

[MCG]

But I don’t even know, well, I do know what you mean by original birth certificate, but that has no meaning anymore.

[Jay]

Right.

[MCG]

Because it’s not like… your birth certificate has to have your parent’s signature on it or something. Yes, I attest.

[Jay]

Or your case footprint or?

[MCG]

I attest that this is my child and they were born here, whatever the case may be. That’s not how the system works anymore. I know, even if you’ve worked that way before, I think a time ago, birth certificates probably were harder to obtain because you would have to go to the capital of your state to the vital records, let’s say live four hours away from the capital of your state, you have to drive there and get it or whatever the case may be. Now we can get it online. Now you can go to, at least for the state I live in, you can go to the DNV and pay them 12 bucks or 15 bucks, whatever. It’s not anything expensive to do what they call a document search and they print it right there for you.

[Jay]

Or if you want to pay a little bit of extra convenience, as I said before, you can go to vitalcheck.com, V-I-T-A-L-C-H-E-K.com. And most of the states are using that third party to allow you to order your birth certificate online, official. You could use it for all of these things that these people were talking about today for a few extra bucks. If you simply can’t make it to the DMV and you can’t be bothered, you could do it online for a few extra dollars.

[MCG]

Yes, I think the only time the DMV will not have your birth certificate, probably if you were born before For a certain time, or if it’s a newborn, like I think they say you have to wait three months or something like that before the DMV can do a document search, because of course he has to go into the record and whatever the case might be, the baby name has to go in the record or whatever, but other than that, most people, people that can vote. won’t have a **** you getting a birth certificate?

[Jay]

Yes, so most of the states that I checked today on whether or not you could order your birth certificate online, which was all of them, again, with the exception of Indiana, Indiana was a little bit more difficult because I had to click more than twice to get to where you ordered your birth certificate online, but all of them allow you to order a birth certificate all the way back to 1912.

[MCG]

I take that back.

[Jay]

So if you’re 114 years old or older, if you’re older than 114 years old, you may have a little bit of difficulty finding your birth certificate. But everybody else, come on, man. Now I got me sounding like the former president. Come on, man. Well, I think I vented enough on it after having been insulted for several minutes, so using these different news clips. And I hope that everyone understands that this is not us piling on CNN or all of these other people who think this way. It’s just a ridiculous way to think. It’s a demeaning way to see people that are made in the image of God. And it’s just not acceptable. And this is something perhaps that we want to do in order to secure the elections, in order to make an effort to bring the country back from the brink that we feel that it’s about, or maybe some people feel it’s already gone over. And it’s an effort to, quote, save America, hence the name, the Save America Act. But I don’t know about you, MCG. I would imagine you feel the same way, that there is a very important element of saving America that wasn’t at all addressed in any of those clips. How can America truly be saved?

[MCG]

Yeah, I will answer that question by be asking a different question.

[Jay]

Okay.

[MCG]

Would the Save America Act save America? And I guess depends on how you want to look at it. So I’m going to give it a yes. Yes. The Save America Act will prevent non-citizens, illegal aliens or whatever, however you want to call it, from voting, which is the way it should be according to federal law. Non-citizens is not allowed to vote in federal elections in this country. But will it truly save America? Absolutely not. So let me say this. The Save America Act took place 2000 years ago upon the cross of Calvary. That what Jesus Christ did upon the cross will truly save America and not the Save America Act. The Bible declares Romans 10 verse 9 to 13 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture said, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is which unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Save America Act took place 2000 years ago upon the cross of Calvary, when Jesus laid down his life and shed his blood for you and me. And the Bible says that if we should call upon the name of the Lord, we shall be saved. Also, I must add, the problem in this country is not a political problem. It is not a mental health problem. It is not a cultural problem. And it is not who can and cannot vote problem. The problem in this country is a spiritual one. America has left her first love. Americans both often that they were found upon Judeo-Christian heritage. They have the foundation of that. But what is evident today is not that foundation. What is evident today is the slippery slope of Romans chapter 1. And this was not caused by politicians. It was caused by we, the people. We, the people who vote in the politicians, we, the people who adopt the culture, we, the people who have allowed the slippery trope of Romans 1, where we see the progression of sin and Romans 1 named homosexuality. as the same to use for an example there. But we’re the ones who vote the politicians in. The problem is not the politicians. The politicians are causing. We the people cause it. And this headlong plunge into destruction can only be changed by returning to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible declares in 2 Chronicles 7, verse 13 to 14, if I shall shut up heaven, that there be no rain. or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins and will heal their land. And to borrow a friend outline, before we are going to be driven to our knees, if my people who are called by name shall humble themselves and pray, before we are driven to our knees, we must first see the pestilence of the land. The Bible says, if I shall shut up heaven, there’ll be no rain. There’s a drought. I come on the locals to devour the land. There’s famine. Or if I send pestilence among the people, before the people are driven to their knees, they were in a famine, they were in a drought, and they were in pestilence. They must first see the barrenness of the land. And I’m convinced today that many Christians have are not seeing the barrenness of the land. We are clinging to the politics, to the Save America Act. I would love to see the Save America Act pass. I doubt it will pass. But I do realize that that’s not going to save America. The question is, do we see the barrenness of the land? We live in a country where we no longer know who is a boy or girl. Do you see the barrenness of the land? We live in a country where we glorify the killing of babies in the womb. Do you see the barrenness of the land? We live in a country where we mutilate the healthy body parts of boys and girls in the name of pseudoscience. Do you see the barrenness of the land? We live in a country where Christians are more concerned about the general elections over sharing the gospel. Do you see the barrenness of the land? We live in a country where many professing Christians do not believe the Bible. Do you see the barrenness of the land? We live in a country that the powers that be, Bundits, followers of the two major political parties question the integrity of our elections. Do you see the barrenness of the land? We live in a country where 54% of professing Christians admit to actively view **** and has no conviction about it. Do you see the barrenness of the land? I can go on, but my friend, the land is barren. And how can this barrenness be changed? It starts with us as Bible-believing, Bible-professing Christians. The first step is to seek the barrenness of the land. The second is prayer. And the third is obedience to the Great Commission. first is seeing the barrenness of Lent seeing the problem the second is turning to our Lord and Savior in prayer and the third is obedience to our Lord and Savior command in the Great Commission let’s saturate our Jerusalem with the gospel of Jesus Christ preach the word in season out of season and when folks turn to Christ change hearts change lives will lead to a change Direction in this country we can cling to the save act we can cling to make elections great again and whatever else they’re trying to do. But my friend, a Republican in office, a Democrat in office, will not save America. It’s when people turn to Jesus Christ. They have changed lives and changed heart that will change America. And that should be the true Save America Act. Christians, seeing the barrenness of the land, are rising in prayer and in obedience to the Great Commission, going out there to see folks saved.

[Jay]

Thank you so much for listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. Make sure to rate us everywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher. Removing Barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us, to support this podcast, or to learn more about Removing Barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the Removing Barriers Podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.