Senate Majority Leader John Thune admitted some Senate Republicans hate President Donald Trump too much to support the SAVE America Act, multiple sources familiar with the comments told the Daily Caller.
Thune admitted during a closed-door GOP lunch on Wednesday that some Republican senators oppose President Donald Trump so strongly that they will never vote for the SAVE America Act, regardless of the legislation’s merits, according to several sources familiar with the matter. (RELATED: Sen. Mike Lee Says No Rule Change Needed To Pass SAVE Act)
The discussion quickly escalated into a heated exchange between Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, the bill’s chief Senate sponsor, and several of his GOP colleagues. Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Thune both challenged Lee’s push for the legislation, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
“Yeah, that totally happened,” a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Caller.
Still, the Majority Leader’s office denies the admission. “This is a baseless claim, and it is unequivocally untrue,” a spokesperson for Thune told the Daily Caller.
The confrontation was first reported by Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio, who wrote in a Wednesday X post, “GOP senators went after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) during the closed-door lunch meeting today over his push for the SAVE America Act, in what one source described as a ‘pile-on.’ Sens. Cornyn & Kennedy challenged Lee about his strategy and complained that Trump is being led to believe it’s possible for the Senate to pass it, leading to Republicans attacking each other & Trump undermining his own agenda.”
News: GOP senators went after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) during the closed-door lunch meeting today over his push for the SAVE America Act, in what one source described as a “pile-on.”
Sens. Cornyn & Kennedy challenged Lee about his strategy and complained that Trump is being led to…
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) June 17, 2026
Lee, who sponsored the SAVE America Act, has been one of the legislation’s most vocal advocates. The Utah senator appeared on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle on Tuesday, where former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany asked whether there was a path forward for the election integrity bill.
“Yes, there is, Kayleigh, and I respectfully but very strongly disagree with my colleague from South Dakota on that,” Lee replied.
Lee noted that the legislation has already passed the House and has the support of a simple majority in the Senate. While acknowledging the bill lacks the 60 votes typically needed to invoke cloture, he argued Republicans still have options.
“We don’t have 60 votes, just 10 votes short of achieving cloture,” Lee said, adding that there are “other ways of achieving cloture — you don’t actually have to have 60 votes to pass a bill. You just have to have 60 votes to force cloture, but you can break a filibuster through other means.”
We don’t have 60 votes for the House-passed SAVE America Act
But we do have a simple majority
Given the bill’s widespread bipartisan popularity, we could pass it with a simple majority—by debating it until it passes
I explain how in this clip
Share if you want this to happen pic.twitter.com/32zCBs1ons
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) June 17, 2026
Lee said his “preferred means” for advancing the election integrity legislation would be to “put the bill on the floor today,” referring to the version that passed the House and already has majority support in the Senate. (RELATED: Lawmakers Won’t Stop Singing Praises Of Fed’s Favorite Warrantless Spying Tool)
He added that “if the majority leader were to announce we are going to debate this till we pass it, we would get to the point of passage.”
Thune also appeared on Fox News’ Special Report with host Bret Baier on Tuesday, who asked him about President Donald Trump’s recent Truth Social post calling for the SAVE America Act to be attached to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), as Trump stated on a Sunday Truth Social post.
Responding to Baier, Thune said, “We’ve had the vote on the full version twice now so the full version is five components,” before naming the bill’s various provisions. (RELATED: Trump Turns Up Heat On John Thune, Demands Senate Leader Fire Parliamentarian)
Baier noted that “those five things are fairly practical in the Republican caucus.”
Thune pushed back, pointing to the legislation’s lack of support in the Senate.
“We only got 48 votes; we had that vote last week on all five components. The only way you can obviously get this done is to nuke the legislative filibuster, and that is not something that we have anywhere close to the votes to do.”
The Daily Caller has reached out to Sen. John Kennedy’s office but has yet to receive comment.