Majority Leader | Press Release | Press Releases | THE NE...Skip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNE×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUFacebookXInstagramFacebookXInstagramVisit Leader Thune's South Dakota Site Here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMPress Releases02.12.26Thune Joins Martha MacCallum on Fox News, The Guy Benson Radio Show“This is another completely avoidable shutdown, but it does make you start to question … the Democrats’ motivation.” Click here to watch Fox News and here to listen to The Guy Benson Show.WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined Martha MacCallum on Fox News and the Guy Benson radio show.On Democrats’ DHS shutdown:“This is another completely avoidable shutdown, but it does make you start to question … the Democrats’ motivation. There have been productive conversations taking place between Republicans and Democrats on this final funding bill for DHS. And the Dems, at least right now, are choosing to walk away … The Democrats just really don’t want a solution. They want a political issue, which is what happened last fall during that long, 43-day shutdown.”[…]“Federal employees at any of these agencies shouldn’t be held hostage yet again to a government shutdown. And we gave the Democrats every opportunity to keep the government open, including to allow for negotiations to continue, and they opted instead to shut down … Maybe [Democrats] think this is good politics, but I don’t think it’s good politics for anybody, particularly when … their message … right now is, ‘We’re okay with defunding law enforcement. We’re okay with defunding the police and all these other agencies that are impacted by this appropriations bill.’”On DHS funding negotiations:“[Democrats] had insisted on a two-week window in order to negotiate [DHS funding]. And I told them that it takes two weeks just to get something across the Senate floor, let alone negotiate and strike a deal. And of course, it took them 10 days to submit their list of demands. The White House … came back with a counterproposal, so there’s been some paper trading back and forth.“But what I can tell you, having watched all this, is that the White House … has been very reasonable, and they have moved a long way in terms of … trying to reach an agreement here that would keep the government open. But the very idea that the Democrats wouldn’t even allow us to extend the time to negotiate and to strike that deal before they shut the government down … suggests … that they’re not … sincere or serious about trying to solve this and to fund the government, but rather to try and score some political points by not doing it.”On Republicans’ efforts to support law enforcement:“Tom Homan was sent [to Minnesota], deescalated things, got law enforcement working with the elected leadership … and they’re lessening their footprint there. I think the administration has been responding to what some of that public sentiment suggests. But it also is important to remember that [law enforcement] have a job to do, and they need to be able to do their job safely …“The President did a great job of securing the border and getting dangerous illegal aliens out of the country. They continue that effort, and the people who are delivering on that objective for the president and for the American people … need to be protected when they do it. So that’s the other side of this issue.”PrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
