'Beyond idiotic': Jim McGovern slams Stephen Miller's argument for the SAVE Act

Republican lawmakers and political commentators are seizing on an Olive Garden promotion to make a case for voter ID laws, but Democrats are having none of it. Citing Olive Garden's photo ID policy for its bottomless pasta promotion, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller argued on a podcast that getting fettuccine was more secure than voting. However, Rep. Jim McGovern hit back at him, pointing out that voter rights are not the same as a lunch special.

The debate began after President Donald Trump delivered a primetime address on election security in which he warned of vulnerabilities in U.S. elections and exaggerated the scale of non-citizen voters participating in the electoral process, pushing for his voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act. At the same time, Olive Garden introduced its $100 Never-Ending Pasta Pass of 13 weeks for the first 10,000 customers who snagged the offer online. When a user on X asked if the pass could be shared, Olive Garden clarified that the pass was exclusive to the customer who bought it, and people would need to show photo ID proof to avail the offer. 

Riding on the back of this response, Miller on "The Clay & Buck" radio show argued that getting pasta at Olive Garden was more secure than voting in the country. "We've reached a point in society where access to fettuccine at Olive Garden is vastly more secure than deciding who is Commander-in-Chief of the country," he told the hosts. However, McGovern scoffed at the argument, saying Republicans are comparing pasta to Americans’ constitutional right to vote. "This is beyond idiotic. Our rights are not an Olive Garden lunch special," he wrote, sharing the clip of Miller's comments.

Miller isn't the only one to amplify the message, as other Republican lawmakers have pushed the SAVE Act, arguing on the same lines. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a staunch ally of the president, was one of the first to reference Olive Garden's post arguing, "American elections should not be less secure than Olive Garden’s endless pasta. Pass the SAVE America Act," on X. Furthermore, while delivering remarks on the floor of the House, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise called for the "Olive Garden standard" in American elections.

Despite the push, Trump's claims have largely been unfounded. While he touted the release of a new Department of Homeland Security investigation, which identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections, the documents did not specify how the department arrived at that number. There is also no allegation that any of those registered non-citizens actually voted, which would constitute a crime. Furthermore, the data hasn't been verified, and reports have found the SAVE database to be plagued with errors, as it has included outdated information numerous times in the past, as per PBS. A federal judge has gone as far as to ban the database from being used over fears that voters could be wrongly purged from the voter rolls.