From Washington: The Clash Over The SAVE Act & 'Killing' The Filibuster

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Saturday, March 14th, 2026. I'm Jessica Brosenthal. No funding for Homeland Security and no

movement on a new voter ID law in Congress, but we'll send it Republicans vote again.

Well, the things that they would need to do are pretty clear. They would have to get rid of the

filibuster or be execute this very complex lengthy gambits, which is called Make Democrats

execute a talking filibuster. And this week we spoke with President Trump's first vice president.

He's a big supporter of Operation Epic Fury and pushing back against critics of the Iran

strikes on both sides of the aisle. Thanks to the courage of our forces and the decisive leadership

President Donald Trump. With our allies at our side, we're not taking the fight directly to the

heart of global terrorism. This is the Fox News rundown from Washington.

This week, the Senate Republican leader, John Thune, was pressured over the Save America Act

and announced next week the Senate will vote on the law that would require ID in order to register

to vote. The only Americans not to support voter ID requirements are Democrats here in Congress.

That's right. We're expecting continued, full-throated opposition to voter ID and the Save

America Act from Senate Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called this one of the

nastiest pieces of legislation he's ever seen. It is going back to the old South

where people were prohibited from voting and spreading it to every corner of America. It is Jim Crow

2.0. But polling shows most Americans, including Democrats and minority groups, support it.

President Trump has said he wouldn't sign any other legislation until it passes,

telling Fox's prime kill meet about the pressure on Thune here.

I think he's a wonderful person I do, but he seems to be not that he doesn't want to do it.

He doesn't think he can do it. And that's bad. I mean, how can you not get voter ID approved?

How can you not get citizenship approved? Proof or citizenship?

Utah Senator Mike Lee has been pressuring leadership over changing the filibuster,

or forcing a talking filibuster, elevating conservative influencer accounts who are frustrated

with leader Thune. Thune is called them paid influencers, but Lee says that's dismissive and

incorrect. Probably so. In fact, it's not even going to be an upper-down vote on the bill

itself. Why? Because they can't get there. Fox's Chief Congressional Correspondent Chad

Program. Leader Thune has promised what he calls a quote robust debate on the Save America Act.

This is President Trump's highest legislative priority. And he's asked members of Congress

to pull out all the stops to get this done. It has been interesting to me, though, is that he has

never specifically called out John Thune. He used to call it Mitch McConnell quite often,

saying, get rid of the filibuster. And he has not done that in his state of the union message.

He did not address the filibuster. And he's not said, oh, he's left it kind of vague to

say, do what you need to do. Well, the things that they would need to do are pretty clear.

They would have to get rid of the filibuster or be executed. This very complex

lengthy gambit, which is called make Democrats execute a talking filibuster. And I can walk you

through that here in a second or so, but neither of those options seem viable. First of all,

you had John Corman, the Republican Senator from Texas, who announced the past couple of days

that he's foreending the filibuster. And what you would do is follow the playbook of Mitch McConnell

and Harry Reid and to some degree, John Thune, where they have curbed the filibuster and brought

the threshold into filibuster down from 60 votes to 51 on various things, everything but legislation,

frankly. And so this would be legislation. So would they do it across the board for legislation

or would they do it for something narrow? And you just need 51 votes to execute that maneuver.

However, John Thune has said there's not the appetite among Senate Republicans, even though they

want to pass the Save America Act to do that. Now, the other thing is something that, you know,

some Republicans say, yes, we should do this. This is this talking filibuster. And it sounds like,

you know, a filibuster makes it sound like you're going to stop something. Well, that's what they

would be compelling the Democrats to do to talk on the floor until they're exhausted. That process,

if you get deeply under the Senate rules and precedents, could take months. And that means no

confirmation of Mark Wayne Mullin, no vote on a bill to fund DHS. I mean, you have to hold the

floor on these things. And that would take days, weeks, months. And a lot of Republicans are not

even convinced that that could happen. And the idea that then you don't need that procedural vote

that requires 60 votes at the end, everything is exhausted. You've gone through this entire

lengthy debate. And you just need 51 votes, Jessica. Chad, if polling shows this is popular,

even with Democrats, even with minority groups, what is with the lack of support from Democratic

senators? Well, I think some of it is where they say this is really not about voter security.

They say that this is about dumping people off of voter rolls. It's already illegal for people to

vote in the United States, if they're not a citizen. And I should remind everyone that the

documented cases of voter fraud are infinitesimal. It's zero point. And then there's usually a couple

of other zeros won something. If you look at any any study that's been credible on this, it doesn't

happen very often. So that's some of it there. It would make it very complicated. And here's the

other thing too that a lot of people don't talk about. We have an election coming up in November.

Early voting, depending on the state, will start sooner than that. If you put this in, how do you

possibly get 50 states to recalibrate everything by November? It's the middle of March now. That's

almost impossible. So on one hand, yes, you're right that the Democrats have some exposure here

because Republicans are kind of running the same playbook that they ran back in 2024,

which the implication is the border is not secure. But the idea that there are people who are in

the country illegally who are casting ballots and that helps Democrats. And so, you know, John

Thune basically said the only reason he could estimate as to why Democrats would oppose this is

that they want illegal people to vote. And that helps them somehow. Okay, that's an argument that

probably resonates with the electorate because it certainly resonated when it came to border security

in 2024. Let's move on to Homeland Security funding. This failed again in the Senate. I think

of the fourth time and Friday. And that wasn't even a failure. That was a that was a blocked test vote.

The fourth one. Right. Sorry. They very rarely get to the actual vote around this place. That

tells you anything. And that's all because of what? The filibuster. Yes. A failure of a test vote.

So, but the Friday thousands of TSA agents missed the first full paycheck. I was listening to some

of the debate. It's something like Democrats want to do this piecemeal like break DHS apart. And

okay, we'll fund Coast Guard. Okay. Now we'll fund cyber security. Is that and take out ice and

CBP? Is that was that the demand here? That was part of it. And those proposals were

objected to on the Senate floor by Republicans. And by the same token, you had Roger Marshall, a

Republican Senator from Kansas. Say, I propose a two week interim spending bill for all of DHS

and Andy Kim, the Democratic Center from New Jersey, objected. What's going on is that Democrats

say, okay, and there's some exposure, some political exposure for them here. If God forbid,

there is a major terrorist attack. Republicans politically are already semi priming the pump to turn

around and blame this. If that happens, you know, because the terrorism threat is amplified,

certainly, you know, after the war in Iran. And some of that comes back to this whole idea that

Democrats are not serious about border security. Republicans view that as an election issue. They

said, oh, they just want to undercut ice. You see, we're back to the 2024 debate that works so

well for the Republicans. Democrats say, you know, we can't have, in the words, a Peter Welch,

the Democratic Center, from Vermont, another Minneapolis. And so until they get some bonafide

reforms, they are not willing to vote yes on anything. Now, here's an inflection point. Number

one, TSA lines are growing. Sick outs are growing. It's spring break, travel season. That could

be a problem. We talked about terrorism. But on Wednesday, we will have the confirmation hearing

for Senator Mark Wayne Mullin to be the new secretary of Homeland Security. Now, they think that

they could probably confirm him maybe the week after next. So about two weeks time, it might take

a little longer, frankly, but that's kind of where we are. But Democrats, potentially, and I've

been told this, if they can extract promises from him on ice, you know, they didn't think that

Christie Nome was a very honest broker. They didn't like her. There are relationships between

the senators and Mark Wayne Mullin. They might not agree with him politically, but they know him.

And it's very rare that they don't confirm one of their own. Now, are those agreements,

if they're able to get them, do they hold? You know, this is the situation that Bill Cassidy,

the Republican Center from Louisiana got himself into. He chairs the Senate Health Committee

and went along and thought he had secured certain promises from RFK Jr. about vaccines,

about public health, to be the secretary of health and human services. And now, Bill Cassidy

isn't very pleased with the secretary. So I think Democrats might be leery on that front too,

depending on what is said in the hearing. Okay. We'll be following. I think I read an email from

you this week that House Oversight, which is conducting depositions as part of their Epstein

investigation, wants to speak to Howard Lautnick, Commerce Secretary, as well as AG Pam Bondi,

on her front within about three weeks. Specifically, when it comes to Pam Bondi after her hearing

full of fireworks, what do you think is the line of questioning for her here? Is it where are the

prosecutions? Is it what about the redactions? Where's House Oversight going with her?

I was told by a senior Republican source who is close to this, that they are not on the GOP

side of the aisle, pleased with Pam Bondi at all. In fact, that source indicated,

and he said, if you were to have a vote of confidence among congressional Republicans,

she would probably lose, frankly. They think that this question of the Epstein files is so big.

Number one, there's just a lot to it. Number two, there's a lot to it politically. We're just not

talking about the paperwork and what all is there. And so there's exposure for Republicans,

politically on this. The idea that there was this promise that they were going to provide the

Epstein files that never really happened. So you understand the frustration, certainly again,

among those Republicans who say, you know, this was very important to them. And one, on those types

of issues and campaigned on those types of issues of transparency. So here's the other interesting

thing. The House Oversight Committee about a week and a half ago voted to issue a subpoena to

Pam Bondi. Well, James Comer, the chairman of the committee from Kentucky, has still not issued

that subpoena. And, you know, he is starting to get, I'm told, a little bit frustrated with the

idea that she has not come in and played ball to a lesser degree with Howard Lutnik, but there's

problems there too. Yeah, I was told last week that they would have Lutnik come in for a deposition

within about 10 days. And then about seven days later, they said, it's going to be another 10 days.

In fact, you know, the House was out this past week. The Senate was in session. And I even asked

specifically if they would bring him in Lutnik over the House recess. And I said, potentially,

I was told, potentially, well, that never happened. So yeah, this is getting to be a little

testier on the Republican side of the aisle. And this is where Democrats believe that,

you know, in a worst-case scenario, they are covering for the president. There is concern that

they're not, you know, fully, you know, releasing all the files or redacting certain things.

You know, I mean, this is something that Thomas Massey had said about less waxener,

you know, who was, you know, found with the limited and ran Victoria's secret. And that he was

listed, you know, as a co-conspirator in the documents by the FBI. And they had waxener in. In

fact, they went to his home in New Albany, Ohio, which is near Columbus, and interviewed him. He's

elderly now. But they had redacted his name. And that's something that Thomas Massey and Bondy

had really gotten into it at an oversight committee hearing just a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah. Yeah, we remember that. Finally, Chad, before Congress projected the war powers resolution

regarding Iran, Republicans told Democrats, if you want to have a say on this conflict,

you can vote against funding it. Is that going to happen soon? Is the White House asking Congress

for additional funding for Iran? Yes, they are asking for money. We don't know what the price tag will

be. We believe we're spending north of a billion dollars a day on this. And, you know, people are

watching closely the price of the cost barrel of oil, simply because, you know, some Democrats,

I think that they would be more willing to provide funding if they think that this is going to

in the war and the, you know, price tag comes down. If not, they're like, why are we funding this

thing? Well, we're not getting anything out of it. And that's the issue that Democrats say.

Number one, they believe that there was a violation of the Constitution. Number one,

it's up to Congress to quote, declare war. You've had certain people on the Republican side of

the aisle say, this is not a war. This is a conflict. And they'll turn back around and say,

will you even change the name of the department from the Department of Defense to the Department

of War? Now you're telling me we're dropping bombs left and right in Iran. And this is to say

nothing of the fact that here to four that this robust military cannot control the straight of

20 percent of the world's crude moves through on a daily basis to say nothing of liquefied natural

gas. So, you know, how did that, how was all that not figured out? How do we, how do we spend all

this money on the military? And they can't control the straight of four moves with, you know, people

run around on fastboats and blowing up cargo ships and tankers. Now, Congress, you would probably

see an amendment on this that would say, okay, we're going to cut off funding for the entire operation.

The proposed request for the entire Pentagon budget is expected to be exorbitant in the next

cycle anyway. Right. And this is while they're cutting all these other things. Oh, and by the way,

remember, we talked about that lengthy debate, that talking filibuster that the Senate Republicans,

some Senate Republicans are trying to avoid as it pertains to the Save America Act. Well,

you have, if you, if you go that route, you have an open amendment process. And I will put money

on the table at the Bellagio, but there will be a post of amendments from the Democrats to cut off

the war in the war, back Republicans into a corner or cut off the money specific to this operation

if they go that route. That's another reason why Republicans, most of them don't want to pursue

the talking filibuster. Wow. Thanks so much for the update. For the week Fox's chief congressional

correspondent Chad Pergram, thank you. Thank you. To a hacker, your tax return isn't just paperwork.

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Since the launch of Operation Epic Fury over two weeks ago, President Trump has said the U.S.

has been successful targeting Iran's missiles and launch systems as well as its Navy and its

nuclear program. However, many Democrats and even some Republicans, including some members of

the MAGA movement, have pushed back against the president's decision to strike Iran. But one big

Trump supporter in this conflict is his former vice president, Mike Pence. Despite their falling

out after the 2020 election, he's praised the Commander-in-Chief's effort to dismantle Iran's

regime and end their ability to destabilize the region and the world. The truth is that this war

began 47 years ago. The former vice president, Mike Pence, is also the founder of the advancing

America Freedom Organization. He spoke with Dave Anthony this past week on the Fox News rundown.

1979, when the Mollos took over around, they held American hostages for nearly 400 days.

And all through the course of the last 47 years, one administration after another has essentially

been battling against the tentacles of the Iranian terrorists. But thanks to the courage of our

forces and the decisive leadership of President Donald Trump, with our allies at our side,

we're not taking the fight directly to the heart of global terrorism. And I couldn't be more

proud of our troops. I couldn't be more proud and grateful of our Commander-in-Chief for having

the guts to pull the trigger. And my hope, my prayer, is that we are sending the conditions to

to bring the threat that Iran has posed to the American people, to our interests in the region,

to our most cherished ally Israel, to an end once and for all.

The president has said that he didn't think any other president, whatever guts to do this,

and he wanted to avoid another president from having to deal with Iran, like he has,

and like we've had for 47 years in the future. He took action also last year with Operation Midnight

Hammer. He said at the time that the US had obliterated with the strikes, in addition to what

Israel was doing, Iran's nuclear threat. But here we are again. What happened?

Well, again, you make a great point, Dave. I mean, when President Trump made the decision

to launch US forces for the first time directly into Iran, against their nuclear program with

Operation Midnight Hammer, it was unprecedented. It was historic. And I think it did

obliterate that facility. But the truth is that our best intelligence supported the fact that

during four years of appeasement and capitulation by the Biden administration that Iran in fact

had been reconstituting its nuclear program at multiple sites and the intelligence that

had become open source at this point is that they were very close to having up to 10 nuclear

weapons sufficient uranium. And so I think the president made the right decision.

Now we have an opportunity, I believe, to create the conditions where the Iranian people

can reclaim their nation and set a ran back on a pathway where it can join the family of nations

and contribute to that security and prosperity. President Trump has come under criticism from

the left and Democrats who have said that there have been conflicting versions as to why and how

this conflict started. And they are also uncertain. They say there are more questions than answers

when they get updates from the Pentagon about this conflict. What do you think the ultimate

goal of this operation should be and will be? Well, what's really commendable is that

you could anticipate that the left would be critical, many in the media or critical, the president,

but not only did he essentially turn aside from the criticism from predictable sources,

but also the president pushed back on a growing chorus of isolationist voices on the right who

not only opposed Operation Epic Fury, but also opposed the effort to take out the nuclear

facilities a year ago. And so I think what you saw the president do here was in every real sense put

the security and a long-term interest of the United States first, and I commend him for that.

Mr. Vice President, on that front, I'm sorry to interrupt, on that front, those critics that the

president is getting from some of his mega supporters on the right is that he campaigned on no wars,

that he didn't create any wars, starting wars in his first term, and he doesn't want any kind

of endless war. And he also has an American first agenda, and they say that how is going after Iran

and upending potentially financial markets America first? Well, I think it's important to say,

I've said it many times, the president I served with is not an isolationist, but some of his

harshest critics, and it is a fringe of a movement that I believe overwhelmingly supports

presidents initiative in our troops in this moment. But look, it's a loud chorus, it has some

loud mouthpieces out there, but I always understood that during our time in the White House together,

that he believes in leading from the front. Well, I think that is putting the interest of the

American people first, the interest of our strategic priorities first, and I think you could see

that the overwhelming majority of people who identify as Republicans are conservative support

this initiative. But I'm happy to talk about what I think the two objectives here could be, Dave.

Please do, because people have talked about, so ending the nuclear threat, ending their

misses and launchers, that's certainly one goal. But then we have heard that the goal is not

regime change, but on the very first day of the operation, the strikes that Israel put in Iran

killed the Supreme Leader. So what is the end game in your view? First, the military has the

opportunity to degrade the security and military infrastructure within Iran to a point where the

Iranian people can reclaim their country. The people of Iran have again and again taken to

the streets to reclaim their country from the terrorist mullahs in Tehran and been gunned down.

I really believe that by hitting the security infrastructure, by degrading the ability of

the Iranian regime to impose its will by force on its people and to launch force against the

United States Israel and other allies in the region, you're giving the Iranian people an

opportunity to reclaim their country. Secondly, I really do believe that disasters with

were all from Afghanistan under the Biden administration literally squandered American credibility

in ways that emboldened authoritarian regimes and terrorists around the world. It's no

coincidence to me that after Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia invaded Ukraine

again and launched their brutal and unprovoked invasion to Ukraine four years ago. It also is no

surprise that with Iran's full support and consent that Hamas launched the worst attack on the

Jewish people since the Holocaust on October the 7th. I think the second opportunity that the

United States has today because of the president's decision and the professionalism our own forces

is to literally restore deterrence on the world stage by demonstrating that America remains

the arsenal of democracy, the leader of the free world and is fully prepared to use force

to advance our aims as well. In 1991 of course in 1990 we had the whole

a rock invasion of Kuwait, we had the American liberation of Kuwait and then that conflict

ended. Some have thought the US didn't finish the job and didn't do it properly and then we found

ourselves in a conflict with Iraq again in 2003. Could that happen again if the US ends this too soon?

Yeah, I was actually a first time candidate for office back in 1990. I have vivid memories of

the Persian Gulf War and that first attack. It was like we're seeing an operation epic fury today.

It was the application of overwhelming military force, our military under remember general

Swartzkov and led our troops into Iraq, pushed them out of Kuwait. It was a brilliant military

campaign but history records that they stopped short of holding accountable the very dictator who

had attempted to redraw international lines by force in Saddam Hussein and to your point

we went back in 2003 and confronted that same enemy. Now there was there was flawed intelligence at

the time but there was never any question that Saddam Hussein was a menace to his own people

and he threatened stability across the region and so I think the experience of 1991 is precisely

the one the American people ought to reflect on today which is operation epic fury is applying the

same overwhelming force not stops and starts but overwhelming military force demonstrating we

have the greatest military in the history of the world but the lesson of those days is what we

need to finish this job and and the threat the Iranian regime is posed to the American people to

Israel and to the free world once and for all. President Trump and Wednesday told Axios that

the war will end at the time that he decides it will end but he did say that there was practically

nothing left to target they'd been so successful going after Iran there have been reports that some

advisors are urging the president to end this conflict quickly so that we don't have a

huge effect to our economy you have been with the president you've been in these high level

meetings with the cabinet how does he go about the process is he's someone that advisors can

pressure into making a decision he doesn't want to do well I don't think it's pressure I think that

the president I served with for four years is someone who leads by asking questions but then one

of his virtues is he's not afraid to make a decision and my my sense is the president in saying

earlier this week that unconditional surrender was the requirement to bring this conflict to an end

I I am deeply skeptical of nation building and I've never been shy about saying that I don't

I don't think it's incumbent for America to build a new nation in Iran or to the American people

want us to do that but creating the conditions we're freedom loving people and Iran can reclaim

their country for a free democratic and non-nuclear future we have an opportunity to do that and my

home my prayer is the president and this team will let our military create the conditions for

just that to occur well certainly a lot is going to happen before the voting in November

former vice president Mike Pence also founder of the advancing American freedom organization

thank you so much for joining us we really appreciate your time

Dave thanks for having me on Fox News rundown I look forward to being back again soon

how can we help make stronger communities happen well at JP Morgan Chase we invest in what's

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learn more at JP Morgan Chase dot com slash impact tomorrow on the Fox News rundown from

Washington we speak with Dr. Rebecca Grant about the advancements in military technology

on full display during US strikes on Iran thanks for listening I'm Jessica Rosenthal

and this is the Fox News rundown from Washington