Banks Delivers Remarks on the Senate Floor Calling for Immediate Action to Protect American Elections

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Senator Banks (R-Ind.) delivered remarks on the Senate floor calling for immediate action to secure America's elections. He warned that foreign adversaries, particularly Communist China, are actively working to interfere with America's elections and urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act to immediately protect American Democracy.

Click the image above or view the full speech here.

See remarks below:

"Mr. President, President Trump recently confirmed what many of us already knew: that foreign adversaries like China are working daily to interfere in our elections and our democratic society. China especially seeks America's decline in hopes that they can establish a world order that runs through the Chinese Communist Party. We must do everything that we can to stop them.

"Historically, when countries have held that kind of ambition, they have started big, catastrophic wars. It should come as no surprise then that the People's Liberation Army is undertaking the largest peacetime military buildup in human history.

"That's why it is incumbent upon this body to fully fund our military, including President Trump's $1.5 trillion defense budget request, so that we can deter exactly that kind of conflict. It is an abomination that the Democrats are holding up the bipartisan NDAA at a time when our military desperately needs our support.

"Yet even if we successfully deter a hot conflict, we could still lose in other ways. That's because every day, the CCP is waging economic and political warfare against us. The CCP is trying to nurture dependency, exploit our divisions, cause us to question the justness of our cause, and erode our democracy.

"Mr. President, this political warfare campaign is not confined to the shadows. In many cases, it operates right out in the open.

"Take a look at Neville Roy Singham. Singham is a 72-year-old American tech mogul who sold his company and immediately moved to China. From his Shanghai office, which he shares with a CCP propaganda outlet whose avowed mission is to 'tell China's story well,' Singham began funding a complex network of leftwing NGOs and nonprofits that advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

"This is all a matter of public record. Even the New York Times has marveled at the hundreds of millions of dollars that Singham-linked groups have funneled to radical nonprofits that 'mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.'

"Code Pink, that radical organization that chases me and other Senators throughout the halls of Congress, used to on occasion condemn CCP human rights abuses. After Singham started lavishly funding the group-and married its co-founder-Code Pink stopped criticizing the Chinese government and started defending it.

"In recent years, Code Pink has even provided cover for the CCP's shocking genocide in Xinjiang. Meanwhile a newer Singham nonprofit, No Cold War, is entirely dedicated to advocacy designed to ensure America is defenseless against the CCP's economic, military, and political warfare.

"But the Singham network is not limited to China-specific advocacy. Singham groups advance a wide variety of causes that are united only by their hatred of America, our allies, and the rule of law.

"From anti-ice boycotts, violence against law enforcement, rioting, obstruction, and support for Hamas' attempted genocide of Jews in Israel, Singham groups and their members advance division, chaos, and hatred.

"All of this advances CCP interests and poisons our society. Thankfully, under President Trump's leadership, the Department of Justice is now investigating whether Singham has been fueling this lawlessness in violation of US law. At the same time, the State Department under Secretary Rubio is leading from the front in identifying left-wing violence and building an international coalition to counter it.

"It should come as no surprise that as the CCP seeks to interfere in our society, it also seeks to interfere in our elections. As President Trump disclosed earlier this month, China perpetrated the largest known compromise of U.S. voter information in history, stealing the personal data of over 220 million Americans in 2020. The President also exposed ongoing vulnerabilities when it comes to American elections.

"As one newly declassified intelligence assessment found, 'We judge that U.S. adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as non-state groups, have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure.'

"Mr. President, our adversaries are actively coming for our elections. If that is not enough to sound the alarm, I don't know what is.

"All Americans, especially my colleagues in the Senate, should be outraged by this vulnerability. We know that our adversaries like the CCP seek to do us harm, and yet we standby and do nothing about it. Our inaction has no excuse.

"We need to safeguard our democracy and we need to do it right now.

"If this chamber does anything this year, it must ensure that American elections are for Americans only, now and always. And that's precisely why we need to pass the SAVE America Act right now. In the face of the CCP's coordinated campaign, we need more election integrity, not less. We need to ensure that all votes in American elections come from Americans, not illegal aliens or foreign manipulation.

"And by the way, it's not only because of our international adversaries that we need to pass the SAVE America Act. Just last week, the Democrat governor of New Jersey announced that 6,600 non-citizens were 'accidently' added to the New Jersey voter rolls.

"That's one hell of an 'accident'. But not only that. Nearly 400 of those non-citizens cast illicit ballots in previous elections between 2023 and 2025.Democrats keep saying that stories like this are a figment of our imagination. They keep saying that these stories are just 'accidents' or 'software glitches'. The fact of the matter is that these stories keep happening, and we need to do everything we can to put an end to them.

"And if we have to cancel the August recess to protect our elections and pass the SAVE America Act, then let's do it. Protecting our elections from fraud and international interference is more important than vacation time.

"Mr. President, our adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party will stop at nothing to distract, divide, disrupt, and destroy America. Their campaign is not confined to Election Day, but Election Day is our last line of defense.

"Americans must always be free to reject the CCP and its values, while choosing a path that embraces the timeless truths that have always been at America's core. The day that the CCP chooses the outcome of our elections will be the day it has won. And by then, it will be far too late to correct course.

"We cannot wait for that day. I urge my colleagues to act now, and pass the SAVE America Act. With that, I yield the floor."

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