Kentucky's new Republican secretary of state and leaders of the GOP state Senate majority have reached agreement on a bill requiring voters to show an official photo identification at the polls.
The deal puts the Legislature, which convened this week, on course to be the first in the country to clear legislation this year that would make it tougher to vote in November. Just seven states now have photo ID laws as strict as the one being proposed, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The new Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, signaled skepticism about the measure Wednesday, saying, "I just want to make sure that there aren't unnecessary roadblocks toward voting." But since the GOP has supermajorities in both chambers in Frankfort, any potential veto would face an override.
Secretary of State Michael Adams, who also took office this week, said the bill was written with the aim of strengthening election security and enhancing public confidence in the voting process. He lamented that 22 people went to prison for election fraud in Kentucky between 2006 and 2014, although he conceded none were convicted of voter impersonation.
Opponents of the bill said it would make voting more difficult for the disabled, the elderly, the poor and members of minority groups. Proponents said the ID requirements for casting a ballot should be as stringent as for opening a bank account or picking up tickets at a will-call window.
The bill would create a no-fee personal photo identification card that Kentuckians without driver's licenses could sign up to receive. It would also allow college and military IDs at the polls, and it would allow people to vote without an ID if they sign an affidavit claiming a "reasonable impediment" to getting one.
If enacted the requirements would not cover the May primaries but would begin in November, when President Trump is highly likely to claim the state's eight electoral votes while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faces a long-shot challenger in his bid for a seventh term.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.