Acting Attorney General Gets Blunt Reality Check After Making Bizarre 'Restaurant' Analogy In Defense Of Voter ID

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had people raising their eyebrows after he defended voter ID restrictions by attempting to bring up a real-world scenario in which people have to show their IDs... going inside restaurants.

Blanche was speaking to Kristen Welker on Meet the Press when he argued that attention should shift away from criticism of Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices for weakening the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and toward what he framed as the more pressing issue of voter ID requirements.

Instead of directing anger at the Supreme Court for gutting a key protection in the Voting Rights Act aimed at preventing racial discrimination in voting and representation, Blanche suggested the following:

“Like every time you walk into a restaurant or a club, you have to show your ID. How about you have to show your ID to vote? That’s not anything that’s crazy. And that’s what we should be talking about.”

You can hear what he said in the video below.

The United States has grappled with the contentious issue of voter ID laws for years.

Proponents like Blanche argue that requiring photo identification at the polls is crucial for safeguarding against voter fraud and upholding the integrity of the electoral process. However, the evidence suggests otherwise.

These laws tend to disproportionately affect marginalized groups such as Black individuals, Native Americans, the elderly, and students. Moreover, despite their purported purpose of enhancing election integrity, voter ID laws have not proven effective in addressing legitimate concerns in this regard.

At no point in the conversation was anyone discussing entering a restaurant or nightclub, making Blanche’s analogy especially bizarre—and one for which he was quickly criticized.

Blanche's weird claim mirrors similarly bewildering ones about ID requirements made by President Donald Trump.

For instance, in 2018, Trump was called out for repeatedly and falsely insisting that Americans must show photo ID to buy basic groceries like bread or cereal.

When then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to explain one such remark, she suggested Trump may have meant age-restricted purchases such as beer or wine—only for Trump to later clarify that he was, in fact, talking about cereal.

Trump returned to the false claim in 2023, saying ID was needed to buy a loaf of bread, and reiterated the point last November, telling Republican senators that Americans must show identification at grocery stores and even gas stations.