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Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump gave a really lengthy State of the Union speech final night time, clocking in at a report one hour and 48 minutes.
You possibly can match quite a bit into almost two hours — however, my colleague Zack Beauchamp argues, you solely actually wanted to listen to one line: Trump’s assault on Democrats opposing the SAVE Act.
What’s the SAVE Act? If handed, the SAVE Act — brief for “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act” — would make important adjustments to US elections by tightening voter ID necessities, requiring proof of citizenship to register, and ending voter registration solely by mail.
What did Trump say on Tuesday? He accused Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the SAVE Act, of “need[ing] to cheat” in elections.
“[The Democrats’] coverage is so unhealthy that the one approach they will get elected is to cheat,” he mentioned. “We’re going to cease it. We’ve got to cease it.”
What’s the massive image? Voter fraud, opposite to what Trump and the GOP declare, isn’t rampant within the US. The truth is, there’s no proof it’s a significant difficulty in any respect. However the form of further voter ID necessities the SAVE Act proposes would create new administrative boundaries to voting that might successfully disenfranchise many Individuals.
Why does this matter? The SAVE Act itself isn’t a five-alarm fireplace: Not solely does it have a troublesome, unlikely path to passage within the Senate, however, as Zack factors out, it doesn’t really appear to be it might accomplish what Trump claims. (Certainly, it’s not clear that stricter voter ID necessities would profit Republicans in any respect.)
As an alternative, Zack argues, the priority is in what Trump thinks he’d be conducting: “Taken actually,” he writes, Trump’s speech “is the president asserting that the acknowledged coverage of his administration is stopping the opposition from profitable any future election.”
You possibly can learn Zack’s full story on the Vox web site right here.
And with that, it’s time to log out…
It’s a giant week on Capitol Hill: After the SOTU final night time, right this moment is the annual Bipawtisan Canine Parade (considerably delayed from its regular October date by final 12 months’s prolonged authorities shutdown, and themed for Mardi Gras as a substitute). I particularly loved this picture from NOTUS reporter Em Luetkemeyer. Have an incredible night, and we’ll see you again right here tomorrow!