Trump Signals Leveraging Beloved Deep State Spy Tool For SAVE America Act
President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he would leverage the future of a spying tool favored by the U.S. national security apparatus to push a Republican-backed voter ID bill through Congress.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump was asked about efforts by Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna to leverage negotiations over the expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to force passage of the SAVE America Act. Luna first hinted at the idea in an interview with The Hill on Monday.
“On FISA, Mr. President, Anna Paul[ina] Luna is pushing for the SAVE America Act to be linked to FISA as part of FISA renewal. Are you in favor? » Daily Caller reporter Reagan Reese asked the president. (RELATED: Late Night FISA Push Tanked by House GOP Hardliners)
“I think she’s great and I’d love to see that,” the president responded. “The SAVE America Act is so important, it’s so good. It’s voter ID, it’s… the basics of a democracy, voter ID, birthplace.”
WATCH:
The president also said that the provisions regarding “transgender mutilation” [sic]» Minors and men in women’s sports, among others, were highlighted in the bill.
“We also don’t have mail-in ballots, except for military, et cetera, if you’re sick…if you’re absent, if you’re disabled, any of those things, it’s pretty generous, actually,” Trump continued. “But, [there is] the massive cheating that’s happening with mail-in ballots, so we wouldn’t have mail-in ballots except for these various exceptions.
Trump’s comments come after the Senate passed a short-term extension of Section 702 of FISA, allowing the provision to apply until April 30 while giving lawmakers more time to reach an agreement. The talks are blocked by Republican hardliners who are seeking safeguards for the section, including arrest warrants and preventing data brokers from selling information to the government.
Although he was targeted by this tool during his first presidential campaign as part of a now-debunked case, the president on Wednesday expressed his support for a clear expansion of this provision. He also suggested that he would happily give up his rights for the provision to stand.
“I am willing to risk giving up my rights and privileges as a citizen for our great military and our great country! Our patriotic military desperately needs FISA 702, and it is one of the reasons we have had such SUCCESS on the battlefield,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
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