President Donald Trump’s voter ID proposal, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act proposal, is popular by a wide margin.
But despite the President’s persistence (on social media and at public events) to get it passed in the Senate, the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) broadcast networks haven’t given the SAVE Act any oxygen, as they’ve mostly ignored it on their evening and morning news programs.
NewsBusters has been tracking coverage of the SAVE Act since its passage in the House on February 11 and found the Big Three networks refused to cover it, perhaps hoping the popular bill would die on the vine. In fact, they had completely censored any discussion of the bill on their evening and morning news shows until a few small mentions began appearing on March 21.
MRC analysts reviewed the ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning news shows from February 11 (when the SAVE America Act passed the House) to the morning of March 26 and found the broadcast networks have mostly hidden any discussion of the bill, spending a tiny 247 seconds (or 4 minutes, 7 seconds) on it.
CBS has spent the least amount of time on the SAVE Act on their evening and morning news programs, airing a minuscule 45 seconds on the topic. NBC devoted 70 seconds to the bill. ABC aired the most coverage of the SAVE Act, coming in at a still scant 132 seconds (or 2 minutes, 12 seconds.)
Those total 247 seconds of coverage arrived in very brief mentions about the shutdown debate.
The following 28-second bit on the March 24 edition of ABC’s Good Morning America represented one of the longer mentions:
@ABC, @CBSNews and @NBCNews are mostly ignoring @realDonaldTrump‘s popular SAVE America Act bill. Here’s just one of the very brief mentions of it, on the March 24 ABC’s Good Morning America. pic.twitter.com/Y3zd97v7FA
— Geoffrey Dickens (@GCDickens) March 26, 2026
CORRESPONDENT JAY O’BRIEN: Just hours before that Oval Office meeting, President Trump had publicly demanded that there should be no deal between Republicans and Democrats, unless it includes his Save America Act legislation that requires proof of citizenship before registering to vote. Democrats have said that is a non-starter, pointing out that it’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote and saying that legislation would put up unnecessary hurdles for legal voters. Michael?
CO-HOST MICHAEL STRAHAN: Yeah, it’s kind of unfortunate one thing control the other Jay, when it shouldn’t.
For this study, MRC analysts looked at the broadcast evening (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News), morning news shows (ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, NBC Today) from February 11 through the morning of March 26.
