Tipsheet

Kevin O’Leary Torches CNN Panel Over SAVE Act: Every Other Country Solved This Decades Ago

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  February 17, 2026 11:00 AM

Businessman and former Shark Tank star, Kevin O'Leary, blasted a CNN panel on Monday for their opposition to the SAVE Act, arguing that no other Western nation tolerates lax election safeguards. If the U.S. has the technology to prevent election fraud, he said, it should implement it, period.

"Every 24 months, we go through this debate over and over again," O'Leary said. "When every country, the Nordic countries in Europe, France, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, solved this problem decades ago,. A, you've got to be a citizen to vote, you've got to prove it. We all agree at the table on that one. Number two, there's such advancement in technology to make sure there's no cheating; we should implement it here and get all this crapola over with."

"It's getting almost boring, every 24 months, oh, the election's rigged, oh, this guy's doing this, this guy's doing that." he added. "No other country has this narrative. Nobody. It's ridiculous."

"Kevin, I agree with you. It is getting incredibly boring," CNN panelist Leigh McGowan said. "We talk about this all the time, it's incredibly boring, but it's also not an actual problem. Like, when you look at the statistics, voting, illegals voting is not an actual problem in this country. You do need to show ID to be able to vote."

"But you agree, if you're not a citizen, you can't vote," Mr. Wonderful said.

"It is zero point," McGowan shot back. "I would absolutely agree with that, but that's not what the problem is." 

"The problem is that we have 0.001 percent of people that are illegally voting. The Heritage Foundation said that three related fraud cases since 2017. The Brennan Center for Justice says there's 100 confirmed instances since the 1980s. This is not a real problem. The problem the Trump administration is trying to solve is that they are not doing well. They are not going to do well in the midterm elections, and they are coming up to it to..."

"Well, is it illegal to vote if you're not a citizen?" O'Leary asked. "Yes or no?"

"But that's not the question anymore. It's already illegal. No one is doing that. That's already illegal."

"It's already illegal to vote if you're not a citizen," CNN's Abby Phillips chimed in.

"So, why don't you say if you cheat and steal and you're illegally voting, you go to jail?" O'Leary retorted. "Oh my goodness, what a concept."

What the CNN panelists seem either unwilling or unable to recognize is that much of America’s election law is reactive rather than proactive. We investigate, audit, and litigate after problems surface, after ballots are cast, after doubts spread, after confidence erodes. That approach may punish wrongdoing, but it does little to prevent it. 

Legislation like the SAVE Act is designed to shift that framework. By requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register and mandating regular maintenance of voter rolls, it aims to close vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. The law would ensure that only American citizens vote in federal elections and would help prevent ineligible registrations from remaining on the rolls unchecked.

Proactive safeguards also confront the deeper problem: collapsing public trust, which CNN would happily overlook. Claims of election fraud flourish in gray areas of perceived loopholes, uneven standards, and inconsistent enforcement. When the rules vary or appear that way, speculation fills the void. Clear, uniform requirements eliminate that gray area.

Measures like the SAVE Act are therefore not only about enforcement, but about shutting down doubt at its source and restoring confidence in the system.

The panel went on to discuss private prisons and incarceration, where a panelist appeared to argue that many people who go to jail were imprisoned without committing a crime.