Hakeem Jeffries pressed on Democrat opposition to voter ID

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was pressed on CNN Sunday as to why he considered voter ID legislation to be "voter suppression" despite Democratic victories in states with enforced ID laws.

"State of the Union" host Dana Bash asked Jeffries about the Democratic Party's opposition to the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require people to present photo identification before voting, despite mass support from members of both parties for voter ID laws.

Jeffries insisted that even states like New York already have voter identification requirements and claimed the SAVE Act was an attempt by the Republican Party to rig elections.

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"The question is that what Republicans are trying to do is to engage in clear and blatant voter suppression," Jeffries said. "They know that if there‘s a free and fair election in November, they‘re going to lose. In fact, Republicans have been losing every single election since Donald Trump was sworn in January of last year, including most recently, decisively in Texas. And of course, losing all across the country up and down the ballot in the November off-year elections in places like New Jersey or Virginia [or] New York."

"I mean, Virginia is a good example," Bash said. "They have a requirement to show your ID, and Democrats won very, very handily across the way. So why not maybe even just take that off the table and say, okay, maybe not a passport or a birth certificate, but show ID?"

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"Well, first of all, every state is empowered to be able to make the decision on their own, and we completely and totally support that. What Donald Trump wants to do is try to nationalize the election. Translation: steal it, and we‘re not going to let it happen," Jeffries said.

The congressional leader also accused President Donald Trump of trying to rig the midterm elections through Republican gerrymandering efforts and attempts to federalize the National Guard.

"This is going to be a free and fair election. It‘s going to be conducted like every other election, where states and localities have the ability to administer the laws," Jeffries said.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Jeffries' office for comment.

Several other Democratic politicians have accused the SAVE Act of being a form of voter suppression after House Republicans reintroduced the bill last week.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., went as far as to suggest that the SAVE Act was a "Jim Crow-era" law.

"I have said it before and I'll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow-type laws to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate," Schumer said last week. "It is a poison pill that will kill any legislation that it is attached to… The SAVE Act is reminiscent of Jim Crow-era laws and would expand them to the whole of America. Republicans want to restore Jim Crow and apply it from one end of this country to the other. It will not happen."