'Hail Mary to keep his power grab' Stephen King slams Trump's election fraud claims

President Donald Trump, who long claimed that he lost a rigged election in 2020, on Thursday announced that the country's voting systems are vulnerable to being "rigged and stolen," without providing new evidence. From claiming China meddled with the previous elections to hundreds of thousands of non-citizens being registered in state voter rolls, Trump yet again pushed for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a voter ID bill he claims is needed to secure elections. Hitting back at his blatant attempt to get the bill cleared, author Stephen King claimed it was a "Hail Mary" move from the president to undermine the upcoming midterm elections in November, and stop Democrats from taking over Congress.

In his 25-minute primetime address, Trump said he was declassifying intelligence documents that apparently reveal "shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure." Those allegations included Chinese efforts to influence American elections, concerns over voting machine security, and over 278,000 noncitizens found in states' voter rolls. The president used his remarks to make a new push for the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to present proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a form of ID when voting. Slamming his move, King wrote: "Trump will re-litigate the 2020 election. Why? In support of his SAVE Act, which is actually a Voter Suppression Act," in a post on X. "This is a Hail Mary effort to keep his corrupt power grab from being swamped by a blue wave in November," he added. 

While Trump and many Republicans have ramped up pressure to get the bill passed, it still lacks the necessary support to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the upper chamber. Thus, House Republican leaders are now looking into new ways to force the bill through after it was repeatedly held back by Democrats and a group of conservatives, who argue that the legislation would prevent millions of eligible voters from casting their ballots. The bill would overhaul federal elections despite non-citizen voting being extremely rare. Furthermore, federal law requires that voters registering to vote swear under penalty of perjury that they are citizens and eligible to vote.

Despite this, House Republicans plan to pass components of the SAVE America Act through a $95 billion party-line spending bill, which they began working on this week. The reconciliation bill allows Republicans to bypass the Senate filibuster and pass legislation without any Democratic support. This would mark the third such bill since Trump took office for the second time last year. However, they face a steep challenge as reconciliation bills must be related only to taxes and spending, as per NBC News. Thus, all provisions of the SAVE America Act may not pass, as the Senate's nonpartisan body, called the parliamentarian, may dismiss some. 

House Republicans led by Speaker Mike Johnson have already formulated a blueprint for the process that includes instructions for committees on how much they can spend in the final bill. As per the publication, the House Administration Committee would be given $10 billion to implement elements of the SAVE America Act, and it will decide which provisions could pass through reconciliation.