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Reporter’s Notebook: GOP weighs ‘nuking’ filibuster to pass Trump’s SAVE Act
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You’ll hear volumes from congressional Republicans about the importance of passing the SAVE America Act in the coming days. The bill requires proof of citizenship to vote.
«We need to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in America,» said Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio.
«The SAVE America Act is an important bill,» said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., on Fox News. «So we’ve got to figure out how to get it passed.»
TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL FACES GOP RESISTANCE AS TILLIS VOWS TO STOP IT
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said that Senate Democrats wouldn’t take the shutdown seriously until flight delays and cancellations started to stack up. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
And that is the conundrum facing Senate Republicans — figuring out how to get it passed.
The SAVE America Act is the touchstone of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. In fact, the president warned he wouldn’t sign any other bill into law — except perhaps a DHS funding measure — until Congress aligns with his demands.
Republicans agree on the importance of the SAVE America Act, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. is promising everything but passage.
«I will be bringing the SAVE America Act to the floor, and we will be having a full and robust debate,» said Thune.
That’s because Republicans can’t break a Democratic filibuster.
«This is one of the worst things we’ve seen in America in a very long time,» said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
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Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., arrives for a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on March 5, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
«The real reason this president wants this bill to pass is to reduce the number of people voting in the November election,» said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. Republicans only have 53 votes in the Senate. So some Republicans advocate parliamentary ballistics to obliterate the filibuster.
«I would nuke the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act,» said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.
Cold War rhetoric permeates this entire debate. In fact, conservatives implored Thune to launch a pre-emptive first strike to terminate the filibuster before Democrats again win control of the Senate — be it this fall or a decade from now.
«It’s really about the only way I can see preventing them from nuking the filibuster once they gain the majority in the Senate,» said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
Other Republicans want to force Democrats to filibuster the old-fashioned way — until they’re exhausted.
«They should have to go hold the floor like it used to be in the old days. They can go and talk as much as they want. But sooner or later they’re going to run out of time,» said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
If everyone finally fades after days or weeks of debate, then the Senate doesn’t need a test vote to break a filibuster — needing 60 yeas. That means they can pass the bill with a simple majority: 51.
Lots of Republican senators are now invoking the 1930s Frank Capra classic «Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.» That’s where Jimmy Stewart plays an idealistic senator who filibusters until he collapses in the Senate chamber.
«They should have to go out there, hours on end, like a Jimmy Stewart moment,» said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
But most Republicans reject the Jimmy Stewart approach. They’re not so much worried about unlimited debate during a talking filibuster, but the unlimited amendment process.
«The talking filibuster, I think will be a goat rodeo. I mean, it could take two or three weeks. The Democrats will tee up all kinds of problematic votes,» predicted a skeptical Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. «I haven’t had anybody describe to me the project plan. Here are the number of days. This is how we counter people. We’ve got all of our political flanks covered. And this is how we succeed at the end.»
But there won’t be an unlimited amendment process. While Thune will allow the debate to go on for a while (Fox is told perhaps a week or more, perhaps around the clock), he will maintain «ball control.» Thune won’t immediately tee up a test vote to end debate, needing 60 yeas. But Thune will immediately block all amendments from both sides.
Like everything on Capitol Hill, it’s about the math. And while there will be a lot of talking about the SAVE Act and the talking filibuster, there’s not enough support on the GOP side of the aisle to unspool the Senate’s filibuster rules and precedents.
«Many of us don’t believe that we should undo the filibuster because it holds the rights of the majority. And one day we’ll be back in the minority,» said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. «It’s a real splitter here.»
Capito added that there was a «will» to deal with the SAVE America Act. But the parliamentary machinations it would take to blow up the filibuster to pass the bill do not exist.
«There’s not enough numbers to get it done,» observed Capito.
Trump and other conservatives are starting to dial up pressure on Thune.
THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued that Democrats were continuing their push to keep DHS closed because it was «politically advantageous.» (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
«I think he’s a wonderful person. I do,» the president said of the South Dakota Republican on Fox News Radio. «But it’s not that he doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t think he can do it. And that’s bad.»
Despite criticism directed at Thune, some Republicans are defending him.
«It’s not John Thune that’s killing it. It’s members of the Republican Party that are not convinced that a talking filibuster can be used to pass this,» said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. «It will be an infliction of tremendous delays on other matters before the U.S. Senate without the positive results of passage of the SAVE Act.»
It’s significant that the president has not called out Thune over his reluctance to end the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act. However, Trump routinely demanded that former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., do just that during his first term. The president often lambasted McConnell’s stewardship of the Senate, despite the Kentucky Republican establishing a new precedent to inhibit filibusters of Supreme Court nominees. McConnell’s maneuver on the filibuster assured the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
But so far, no sharp criticism of Thune.
Still, some Republicans believe Senate magic could salvage the SAVE America Act.
«I’ve seen John Thune pull rabbits out of his hat before,» said Lummis. «And I’m hoping there’s a rabbit in his hat on this one.»
The Senate takes a test vote just to start debate on the bill Tuesday afternoon. That needs a simple majority. It’s possible that Vice President JD Vance may need to break a tie to launch debate on the bill.
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Vice President JD Vance talks on his phone as he walks to the West Wing of the White House, March 6, 2026, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
But the Senate doesn’t have the votes to blow up the precedents like McConnell did with the Supreme Court in order to pass the SAVE America Act, nor are there the votes to execute a full-blown «talking filibuster,» bypassing the need for 60 yeas.
Consider the firestorm that could rain down on Senate Republicans from their base if the GOP fails to pass the SAVE America Act. Trump has held his tongue so far, but it’s possible there could be recriminations from him, too.
politics,congress,senate,democratic party,republicans,donald trump
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House panel summons Soros-backed Fairfax prosecutor over releases tied to violent illegal immigrant cases
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House Republicans are hauling in two top Fairfax County law enforcement officials, including a Soros-backed prosecutor, after violent crimes involving illegal immigrants released from custody intensified federal scrutiny of the county’s sanctuary-style policies.
Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Ann Kincaid and Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steven Descano are invited to voluntarily testify at an upcoming Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement Subcommittee hearing entitled «Fairfax County Virginia – The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary City Policies.»
Both are elected Democrats, and Descano’s campaigns have received more than $700,000 in funds from organizations backed by far-left Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, a pro-police group.
Descano and Kincaid received near-identical letters signed by Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock, R-Calif., which were also obtained by Fox News Digital.
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Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid is seen. (Eva Russo/Getty Images)
«The hearing will examine how state and local policies that prohibit cooperation with federal immigration authorities hurt public safety,» Jordan and McClintock wrote.
«Your testimony will assist the Committee and Subcommittee in developing legislative reforms to address sanctuary jurisdictions.»
The Fairfax officials have until Monday to confirm their presence at the April 15 hearing to be held at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Descano has a record of dropping charges against illegal immigrants who often have prior criminal records, including Salvadoran national Marvin Morales-Ortez, who was accused of the murder of a Virginia man ambushed on a walking trail.
Jordan and McClintock previously wrote to Descano about their concerns in that case, saying his policies «prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens and threaten public safety.»
DHS BLASTS SPANBERGER ON POTENTIAL RELEASE OF ILLEGAL MIGRANT WITH 30+ ARRESTS CURRENTLY CHARGED WITH MURDER
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano is seen speaking at an event in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
They said Kincaid released Morales-Ortez on December 16 despite his potential MS-13 ties after Descano’s office declined to further pursue prosecution in a malicious wounding case from September 12.
«Despite an ICE detainer on Morales-Ortez, your office refused to briefly detain him until ICE could arrest him and failed to even notify ICE about his imminent release,» the lawmakers wrote to Kincaid at the time.
«One day later, Morales-Ortez allegedly murdered a man in Reston, Virginia, and has now been charged with second-degree murder. Even now, however, you continue to defend your failed sanctuary policies and refuse to take accountability for their consequences,» the lawmakers wrote in the letter, first reported by Washington’s ABC affiliate.
The outlet further reported that Fairfax County’s board, led by Chairman Jeffrey McKay, D-Franconia, also prohibits the Fairfax County Police Department from cooperating with ICE.
Nick Minock, a reporter for the outlet, later obtained a transcript of Morales-Ortez’s preliminary hearing in which Descano’s office posited that Morales-Ortez was present when Jose Guillen Mejia was murdered and had ambushed the man on the trail.
A short time after he was released, Morales-Ortez allegedly went to a home on Fan Shell Court in Reston, Va. — near John F. Dulles International Airport — and allegedly shot a man inside.
POLICE WARNED PROSECUTORS 3 TIMES ABOUT VIOLENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BEFORE HE ALLEGEDLY KILLED VIRGINIA MOTHER
That chain of events enraged the Trump administration, with then-Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying that «Fairfax County politicians [who] pushed policies that released this illegal alien from jail» have «blood on their hands.»
More recently, the family of Stephanie Minter, a 41-year-old mother stabbed to death at a Fairfax bus stop by an illegal immigrant with a long rap sheet, called for Descano’s ouster.
Abdul Jalloh, a Sierra Leone national, was charged with second-degree murder, and Descano released him despite being warned of his 30 prior arrests. Jalloh had been served an order of removal during the Biden administration but was never deported.
A police official in Mount Vernon emailed concerns to Descano’s office about Jalloh being released again, according to Fox & Friends.
Given the heavy Democratic bent of Fairfax, Virginia’s largest county by population and one state officials are trying to include in at least five newly drawn congressional districts, Descano and Kincaid have been strongly supported by voters in each election.
Republicans did not mount opponents against either candidate in 2023, while Descano’s only challenge came from fellow Democrat Ed Nuttall, whose primary bid was reportedly boosted by victims’ rights advocates.
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Nuttall also mounted a write-in challenge in the general election that year but lost. Kincaid was first elected in 2013.
Fairfax Democrats removed Nuttall from their party amid that write-in bid after he attended a Brain Foundation fundraiser with Fairfax’s lone Republican board member, Pat Herrity of Springfield, and a Republican board candidate from Sully named Keith Elliott, according to FairfaxNow.
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Herrity is the son of the late Chairman Jack Herrity, a Republican known as «Mr. Fairfax» in the 1980s when the county was much more conservative.
Fox News Digital reached out to Descano’s and Kincaid’s offices for comment.
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En medio de la guerra en Medio Oriente, Israel lanzó una campaña virtual para reclutar espías en Irán
“Llegó el momento de actuar, una breve conversación podría abrir un nuevo capítulo para usted. Contáctenos a través de una línea segura”. En plena guerra contra la república islámica, la agencia de inteligencia exterior israelí, conocida como el Mossad, intensifica sus esfuerzos en las redes sociales para reclutar agentes iraníes.
Mientras el primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu, no deja de llamar a los iraníes a “tomar el destino en sus manos”, una campaña más discreta se desarrolla en internet desde hace meses.
Leé también: El líder supremo de Irán divulgó un mensaje con amenazas a Israel por la muerte del jefe de Seguridad Nacional
Un canal del Mossad fue discretamente creado en la plataforma Telegram a finales de diciembre. En el sitio oficial del organismo figura un enlace que confirma así su autenticidad, junto a otros que llevan a cuentas de reclutamiento en Instagram, Facebook y LinkedIn en hebreo, inglés y árabe.
Sin embargo la campaña choca con una realidad: Irán impuso un absoluto silencio digital en el país y es casi imposible conectarse a internet.
Informes desde el terreno
Una cuenta en Telegram en persa fue creada el 24 de diciembre, cuatro días antes de que estallaran manifestaciones masivas en todo Irán.
Un mensaje fijado en la parte superior del canal indica: “íBienvenido! Si llegaste hasta aquí, probablemente quieras ponerte en contacto con nosotros. Nos alegra”. El Mossad israelí recluta espías en Irán (Foto: Inteligencia Artificial)
El mensaje va seguido de instrucciones detalladas sobre cómo entrar en contacto con el Instituto (“Mossad” en hebreo) de forma segura, a través de un agente conversacional o de su sitio web.
El 6 de marzo, el canal -que actualmente cuenta con unos 48.000 suscriptores-, publicó un mensaje animando a los iraníes a transmitir información desde el interior del país. “Sigan enviando sus informes desde el terreno. Ustedes son testigos de la verdad. ¡Perseveraremos hasta la victoria!”, afirma.
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En X también apareció a principios de marzo una nueva cuenta bajo el nombre “Mossad Official”, tras el inicio de los bombardeos israelí-estadounidenses el 28 de febrero. Esta también multiplica los llamamientos, apoyados con atractivos videos generados con IA.
Uno de ellos muestra a “basijíes”(miembros de la fuerza de voluntarios que suelen reprimir las manifestaciones opositoras y que dependen de la Guardia Revolucionaria) mirando al cielo, visiblemente asustados por un posible ataque, con un texto que promete que estos milicianos islamistas encargados del orden público “no podrán esconderse por mucho tiempo”. Otro muestra a un hombre tomando discretamente una foto desde su ventana con su teléfono móvil.
Cuenta en persa en X
El Mossad “lleva a cabo este tipo de acciones desde hace décadas, en función de las herramientas y tecnologías disponibles”, explicó Yosi Melman, periodista israelí especializado en defensa e inteligencia.
“Al igual que otros servicios extranjeros, la agencia financió publicaciones y emisoras de radio en países enemigos. El Mossad no inventó nada nuevo. La CIA lo hace desde hace años”, destacó.
Seis meses antes de la apertura del canal oficial en Telegram, otra cuenta, llamada “Mossad Farsi”, apareció en X.
Publicó su primer mensaje el 25 de junio, justo después de los doce días de guerra entre Israel e Irán. Hoy cuenta con más de 60.000 seguidores.
Sus primeras publicaciones fueron una serie de videos de Menashe Amir, conocido presentador de radio israelí nacido en Teherán, que pasó más de seis décadas dirigiéndose en persa a los iraníes.
Amir confirmó que la cuenta estaba efectivamente gestionada por la agencia de inteligencia, aunque no figure en la lista publicada el martes por el Mosad.
“Make Iran great again”
“El primer mensaje (video) que publicaron conmigo fue visto 2.200.000 veces”, comentó.
La cuenta no fue autenticada por las autoridades, pero los medios israelíes la consideran oficial.
“Mossad Farsi” publicó una serie de críticas sarcásticas contra los dirigentes iraníes, así como contenidos variados.
Leé también: El precio del barril de petróleo se acerca a los US$110 mientras crecen las amenazas en Medio Oriente
Así, por ejemplo, hay una oferta de teleconsulta médica para los iraníes, una enigmática secuencia de números, una encuesta preguntando quién debería dirigir Irán para resolver su crisis crónica de agua, o bien un video que promete “Make Iran great again”, una versión adaptada del famoso eslogan de Donald Trump, “Que Estados Unidos vuelva a ser grande”.
El tono se volvió más insistente cuando estallaron protestas masivas en Irán a finales de diciembre de 2025, que fueron reprimidas violentamente. “Salgan juntos a la calle. Llegó el momento. Estamos con ustedes. No solo a distancia o con palabras, estamos con ustedes sobre el terreno”, afirmó uno de esos mensajes.
El martes, pocas horas después del asesinato por parte de Israel de Ali Lariyani, uno de los principales dirigentes iraníes, y del comandante de los Basij, la cuenta comentó de forma lacónica: “Las personas crueles terminan muriendo”.
(Con información de AFP)
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