Nicki Minaj urges fans to call on Senators to pass SAVE Act

Rapper Nicki Minaj is coaxing her fans into calling their legislators to urge them to pass a bill requiring documentation of U.S. citizenship to vote.

Ms. Minaj, who recently announced she was President Trump’s top fan, told her fans, called “Barbz,” to “get your pretty little fingers out & call your senators. I’ll bribe you if I have to.”

The Trump-backed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE America Act, would reshape how Americans vote.

It requires a photo ID in every state for the first time and proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote. It would also order states to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls and eliminate mail-only registrations.

Ms. Minaj’s support comes a day after the bill passed the House on a 218-213 vote, but it is likely to face a showdown in the Senate.

The legislation has excited strong Democratic resistance, as the minority party insists that checking citizenship and requiring a photo ID to vote would disenfranchise minority voters.

Republicans argue that the measure prevents fraud, such as double voting, voter impersonation and noncitizen voting.

But the GOP will need 60 votes needed to override a Democratic filibuster, and getting to that number would require persuading at least seven Democrats to break party ranks.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer has said that the SAVE Act would be dead on arrival in the upper chamber.

Ms. Minaj is using her social media platform to urge for its passage.

“Dear Barbz, call your senators, then tweet #SaveAct to let me know you did it,” she said, including a video as a “bribe” to her fans.

The White House reposted Ms. Minaj’s video, adding, “Barbz- find your senators.”

Her other calls to action include a graphic that explains the legislation’s purpose and a repost of a script people can use when calling their senators.

Ms. Minaj also found herself butting heads with Mr. Schumer, who has dubbed the bill “Jim Crow 2.0,” in her quest to get the legislation to the president’s desk.

“Republicans bristle, the right-wing bristles, every time I say that the SAVE Act is Jim Crow 2.0. They don’t like it because sometimes the truth hurts,” the New York Democrat said. “While the specific policies may have changed since the days of the Jim Crow South, the goal of the SAVE Act is the same: disenfranchising American citizens and making it harder for eligible people to vote, particularly low-income Americans and people of color.”

Ms. Minaj, who is Black, was having none of it and took to all-capital letters and multiple exclamation points to express her indignation.

“Stop weaponizing Jim Crow & the Holocaust in your political theater!!!!” she said, also calling on Mr. Schumer to “stop using black ppl & married women in your shenanigans and say what you really mean!”

She suggested that he really intends to protect unauthorized immigrants in order to “cheat American citizens out of fair elections.”