Mitch McConnell is leading the last stand of the GOP establishment.
The retiring senator wants to stick it to Trump.
And Mitch McConnell has one last betrayal in store that has conservatives seeing red.
McConnell sitting on SAVE Act for 300 days
The House passed the SAVE Act nearly 300 days ago.
83% of Americans want proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections.
But Mitch McConnell has refused to let the bill out of his committee.
McConnell chairs the Senate Rules and Administration Committee with "unique authority" to move the legislation forward.
48 of his 52 Republican colleagues cosponsored the bill.
McConnell isn't one of them.
Texas Congressman Brandon Gill led Republican Study Committee members in sending McConnell a letter demanding action.
"I just sent a letter to Mitch McConnell asking his committee to stop stalling the SAVE Act," Gill wrote on X.
"The House did its job. The Senate needs to do theirs."
The SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and directs states to remove non-citizens from voter rolls.
Now it's dying in McConnell's committee while Democrats gear up for the 2026 midterms.
The personal grudge driving McConnell's obstruction
Congressional aides told The Federalist that McConnell's blockade stems from his hatred of Trump dating back to January 6, 2021.
"Oh, yeah, that's what McConnell is doing. Personally speaking, I think it still stems from Jan. 6," a top congressional aide said.
McConnell called Trump "a despicable human being" and "stupid as well as being ill-tempered" in private recordings from after the 2020 election.
He told associates "the Democrats are going to take care of the son of a b**** for us" regarding Trump's impeachment.
But McConnell voted to acquit anyway because, as he told friends, "I didn't get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference."
The 83-year-old's latest hospitalization for "flu-like symptoms" has slowed things even further.
McConnell's obstruction on election bills goes back years.
McConnell has a long history of blocking election security
McConnell killed bills requiring paper ballots, mandating campaigns notify the FBI of foreign assistance offers, and providing election security funding.
McConnell proudly called himself the "Grim Reaper" for legislation he opposed.
"If I'm still the majority leader of the Senate, think of me as the Grim Reaper. None of that stuff is going to pass," McConnell bragged on Fox News.
Over 300 House-passed bills died in what Democrats called his "legislative graveyard."
Now he's doing the same thing to a bill with overwhelming Republican support because it's Trump's top priority.
McConnell wrote in an April Wall Street Journal op-ed that federal involvement in elections is a "slippery slope."
"No public mandate, real or perceived, lets Washington tamper with this authority, not even for a worthy cause like election integrity," McConnell wrote.
The same guy had no problem federalizing everything else when it suited his purposes.
The Constitution's Elections Clause gives Congress explicit authority to "make or alter" election regulations.
McConnell knows this.
He just doesn't care.
Blue states already mailing ballots to non-citizens
Democrats pretend non-citizen voting is a myth.
The evidence says otherwise.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold mailed voter registration cards to 30,000 non-citizens in 2022.
She blamed a "database glitch" involving driver's licenses issued to illegal aliens.
The cards went out three weeks before the election.
Griswold claimed the state had safeguards to prevent non-citizens from registering.
But Colorado gives driver's licenses to illegal aliens and automatically registers voters when they get licenses.
The system relies on a database comparison that's supposed to flag non-citizens.
It failed.
The formatting information that normally would have caught non-citizens was missing.
Nobody knows how many of those 30,000 actually tried to register.
Blue states make it impossible to tell.
They hide behind "privacy" concerns to avoid auditing their voter rolls.
The SAVE Act would force states to verify citizenship and clean up their rolls.
Democrats and McConnell oppose it for the same reason.
House Republicans running out of patience
Majority Leader John Thune said the SAVE America Act would come to the floor "at some point."
Senate-speak for "maybe never."
Congressmen Chip Roy and Mike Lee introduced an improved version adding voter ID requirements.
Roy said once it passes the House next week, "Leader Thune must bring it to the Senate floor and force Democrats to explain why they oppose securing our elections."
But first it has to get through McConnell's committee.
Representative Mary Miller put it bluntly: "There is ZERO excuse for blocking the SAVE Act. Mitch McConnell — let it out of committee and get it DONE."
McConnell's obstruction could kill the bill through the "silent filibuster" where Democrats don't even have to show up and talk.
Election law expert Hans von Spakovsky suggested forcing Democrats into a "talking filibuster" where they'd have to actually stand up and explain why they oppose citizenship requirements.
"Make them work for it, make them justify to the American people why they are against this," von Spakovsky said.
McConnell won't let it happen.
He's retiring after the 2026 election.
His final act is sticking it to Trump one last time, even if it means letting non-citizens vote in American elections.
That's the legacy McConnell wants to leave behind.
Sources:
- M.D. Kittle, "Mitch McConnell Might Try To Smother The SAVE Act To Spite Trump," The Federalist, February 6, 2026.
- Katherine Tully-McManus, "Top Republicans throw cold water on 'nationalizing' elections," Roll Call, February 3, 2026.
- Justin Tasolides, "Mitch McConnell's Hospital Stay Is Delaying The SAVE Act," The Daily Caller, February 5, 2026.
- Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin, "Analysis: A damning quote from McConnell on Trump and January 6," CNN Politics, April 21, 2022.
- Michael Tackett, "New book reveals what McConnell called Trump behind his back after the 2020 election," PBS News, October 17, 2024.
- Katherine Tully-McManus, "McConnell bristles at 'hyperventilating hacks' criticizing his blocking of election security legislation," Roll Call, July 29, 2019.
- Jake Johnson, "McConnell Dubbed 'Moscow Mitch' for Blocking Debate on Election Security Bill," Common Dreams, July 26, 2019.
- "Colorado secretary of state says office accidentally sent 30,000 voter registration notices to noncitizens," Fox News, October 10, 2022.
