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CNN Confronts Chuck Schumer on Voter ID

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  February 16, 2026 3:00 PM

CNN pressed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) over his opposition to the SAVE Act and voter ID laws, noting that a clear majority of Americans support such measures. Schumer, however, maintained his position, arguing that the legislation amounts to “Jim Crow 2.0” and warning that millions of Americans could lose access to the ballot box if the SAVE Act were enacted.

"About 83 percent of the American people, including majority Democrats, support voter ID laws," CNN's Jake Tapper said.

"The voter ID laws that...first, each state can have its own voter ID laws, and some do, and some don't," the Senate Minority Leader said. "But secondly, what they are proposing in this so-called SAVE Act is like Jim Crow 2.0. They make it so hard to get any kind of voter ID that more than 20 million legitimate people, mainly poorer people and people of color, will not be able to vote under this law."

The SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) would overhaul federal voter registration by making proof of U.S. citizenship a requirement to vote, and by forcing states to run ongoing checks to remove illegal immigrants from voter rolls. The documentation requirements are standard, including options like a U.S. passport, U.S. birth certificate, and Certificates of Citizenship or Naturalization. However, Democrats have argued that some American citizens don't have easy access to those documents, sidelining millions of American voters.

"We will not let it pass in the Senate," he added. "We are fighting it tooth and nail. It's an outrageous proposal that shows the sort of political bias of the MAGA right. They don't want poor people to vote. They don't want people of color to vote because they often don't vote for them."

The SAVE Act has thus far passed the House, but has been stalled in the Senate.

This comes as even CNN was forced to acknowledge earlier this month that a broad majority of Americans support voter ID laws. CNN analyst Harry Enten noted that since 2018, more than 75 percent of Americans have consistently backed requiring identification to vote.

"Look, I've got all this polling here going back since 2018, you'll notice on all of it, it's all north of 75 percent. 76 percent, 76 percent, 76 percent, 81 percent, and then 83 percent in the last year of Americans agree with Nicki Minaj, they favor photo ID to be able to vote," Enten said, later adding that there wasn't even that much of a divide amongst partisans.

"Normally, you might expect, hey, there'd be a big divide by party, with Republicans really for it and Democrats really against it. But not really here. I mean, just take a look here, favor voter ID to vote, you got 95 percent of Republicans, pretty much all of them, but even 71 percent of Democrats favor photo ID to vote."