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EXCLUSIVE: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., is accusing Democrats of being hypocritical in their opposition to Republicans’ latest election integrity bill.
The No. 3 House Republican ripped the rival party after nearly all of them voted against the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act last week, specifically over its provision mandating federally accepted photo identification at the polls. It’s also sometimes referred to as the “SAVE Act.”
“These guys are doing the same old broken record about voter suppression,” Emmer told Fox News Digital. “Why aren’t they screaming about photo IDs at the airport? Why aren’t they screaming about photo IDs when you check out a book at the library?”
NOEM BACKS SAVE AMERICA ACT, SLAMS ‘RADICAL LEFT’ OPPOSITION TO VOTER IDS AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer accused Democrats of hypocrisy for requiring photo IDs for the DNC but not supporting the SAVE America Act. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Emmer pointed out that a photo ID was required for attendees to watch former Vice President Kamala Harris accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for the White House in Chicago last year.
“By the way, if they think it’s voter suppression, why do they require photo IDs at the Democrat National Convention to get in?” Emmer said.
“I mean, I think Americans are so much smarter than these people can understand, can let themselves understand,” he said.
The SAVE America Act passed the House on Wednesday with support from all Republicans — an increasingly rare sight in the chamber — and just one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.
A previous iteration of the bill, just called the SAVE Act, passed the House in April of last year with support from four House Democrats.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, talks with reporters in the Capitol after a meeting of House Democrats in Washington, June 27, 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
Whereas the SAVE Act would have created a new federal proof-of-citizenship mandate in the voter registration process and imposed requirements for states to keep their rolls clear of ineligible voters, the updated bill would also require photo ID to vote in any federal election.
That photo ID would also have to denote proof-of-citizenship, according to the legislative text.
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Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have both panned the bill, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling it “voter suppression” and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., dismissing it as “a modern-day Jim Crow.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks to the media next to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at the White House in Washington, Sept. 29, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Jeffries also specifically took issue with a provision that would enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to initiate removal proceedings if an illegal immigrant was found on a state’s voter rolls, arguing DHS would weaponize the information.
But voter ID, at least, has proven to be a popular standard in U.S. elections across multiple public polls.
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A Pew Research Center poll released in August 2025 showed a whopping 83% of people supported government-issued photo ID requirements for showing up to vote, compared to just 16% of people who disapproved of it.
A Gallup poll from October 2024 showed 84% of people supported photo ID for voting in federal elections.
