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Against the backdrop of a national crisis in which Donald Trump and his team have admitted that they attempted to extort a foreign government into interfering in the next U.S. presidential election, Democratic senators once again repeatedly attempted to bring election security legislation to the floor of the Senate Wednesday, and once again were repeatedly blocked by Republicans.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, asked for consent to bring her Honest Ads Act to the floor. It would require online and social media platforms to make "all reasonable efforts" to prevent foreign entities from placing political ads and require public disclosure of purchasers of political ads. Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican and second-in-command in the Republican Senate leadership, blocked it, saying it needed "bipartisan work." Because, apparently, Republicans are fine with foreign governments helping them get elected by spending money on ads for them.
Then Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin tried to bring up the Election Security Act, a bill similar to what's passed already in the House and is languishing on McConnell's desk. It would give states $1 billion to beef up their election systems' security and would also require backup paper ballots. Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana blocked that one, saying that the funding was excessive. Because, apparently, spending as much as necessary on securing the integrity of the keystone of our democracy—free and fair elections— is too much for Republicans.
Then Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, tried to bring his Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections (FIRE) Act to the floor. Freshman Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee blocked it. The bill would require presidential campaigns to report all offers of assistance from foreign entities. Because, apparently, letting foreign governments help run presidential campaigns is completely fine and normal now, if you're a Republican.
The only way Republicans can win is by cheating. If that cheating includes turning the country into a banana republic controlled by foreign adversaries taking over our elections, that's okay. They'll have won.