In a fiery address Tuesday morning, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) scolded American Airlines, Major League Baseball, and other corporations for meddling in politics while defending SB7, the Senate’s recently passed Election and Ballot Security bill.

Opponents said Senate Bill 7 limits polling hours, eliminates drive-through voting, and includes some changes to the mail-in ballot process. Patrick said the bill is not about voter suppression, as opponents have said, but rather voter security and that the bill is needed because “Americans no longer trust the system and a country where voters do not trust the system is a country in peril.”

“People in America have lost faith in their elections, in the outcome, and we have to resolve that issue in this country and in this state and that’s why Senate Bill 7 is needed,” Patrick said.

Patrick said he was, “tired of lies and the nest of liars who continue to repeat them. “Nothing has changed in the election code regarding early voting. Nothing.”

“Let me repeat this for the media and the Democrats so they’ll stop lying about it, we have not changed any dates on early voting. It still starts two weeks before the election — 12 days of early voting.”

Patrick added SB7 makes mail-in voting easier for seniors or the disabled by making signature verification now one signature for comparison for a longer period of time instead of comparing two signatures within the last six years.

The lieutenant governor said they were standardizing polling places, not reducing them, saying the number of polling places would depend on the number of eligible voters in the area.

The lieutenant governor took offense to criticism of the bill saying it calls into question his integrity and that of the 18 Republican members who voted for the bill. He specifically mentioned a call from a representative of American Airlines whom Patrick said called his office to say they’d be opposing SB7 but hadn’t read the bill.

“So you’re calling us to tell us it isn’t personal against the lieutenant governor or the governor or the 18 members who voted for the bill, but you haven’t read the bill and you’re calling us out for suppressing the vote? Well, let me…