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 Releases10.28.25Thune Joins Sean Hannity on Fox News“[The far-left base is] now defining what the Democrat Party is about. This is a party without an identity … they’re floundering around, flailing around, keeping the government shut down so they can demand all these extraneous policies …” Click here to watch the video.WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) joined Sean Hannity on Fox News.On Democrats prioritizing their far-left base:“This is a big political game [to the Democrats]. This is to make a bunch of people on their far left – the people who were probably at the rally last weekend for Mamdani in New York – that’s the kind of constituency that the Democrats are appealing to right now.”[…]“At some point, Schumer is probably going to have to do what Jeffries did over the weekend, and that is endorse Mamdani … [The far-left base is] now defining what the Democrat Party is about. This is a party without an identity … they’re floundering around, flailing around, keeping the government shut down so they can demand all these extraneous policies …“I think New York is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to where the Democrats are headed. And that’s the reason I think most Americans are going to say: enough of that; I don’t need that; I don’t need a socialist, left-wing ideology … running … New York, but also infecting … the Democrat Party all across the country.”On the consequences of Democrats’ government shutdown:“Unfortunately … millions of Americans are going to get impacted by [the government shutdown] … millions of Americans who aren’t getting paychecks, who work for the federal government …“[Forty]-some million people … depend upon food assistance [and] that runs out at the end of the week … These consequences are becoming real. Flight delays, ATC problems, air traffic controllers, in addition to TSA, Border Patrol, [and] Capitol Police [aren’t] getting paid. The troops aren’t going to be getting paid …“This is a real crisis for a lot of American families and the Democrats, as [House Democrat Whip Katherine Clark said], ‘this is [Democrats’] leverage,’ and they view it as a big political game.”On Democrats’ shutdown hypocrisy:“The Federal Employees Union … has come out in support of the clean continuing resolution sent over here to the Senate by the House, which is awaiting action … All we have to do is pick it up, [get] … five more Democrats [to] vote for it. We pass it. Send it to the White House. President signs it into law. Government reopens. All these questions go away.”[…]“Last week, we had a vote on a Ron Johnson bill on the floor of the Senate that simply would have paid … all federal employees who are currently working … So think military and Capitol Police and … Border Patrol, all these different folks who are actually doing the job right now, not getting paid. Democrats blocked it.“I’m hoping enough [Democrats] come to their senses to give us the five votes that we need to actually get the government reopened again. But they are playing a game, and these demands that they have … [are] not serious. It’s not realistic, and they know it. And all we’re simply trying to do is fund the government at last year’s levels and keep it open until we can get the appropriations process going.“It’s a … very straightforward … uncomplicated position that we put out there. I think the American people are starting to get it, and I think the employers, the Government Employees Union, is … a big indication of that.”PrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
