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 Releases09.24.25Thune Joins The Hugh Hewitt Show“We’ve got a bill sitting at the Senate desk, passed by the House, ready to be signed into law by the president to keep the government open, and [Democrats] want to hijack [it] …” Click here to watch the video.WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined The Hugh Hewitt Show.On funding the government:“All we need is … a handful of Democrats to come across the aisle and vote to keep the government open. A short-term funding resolution. Short-term that would enable us to finish up the other appropriations process, something that we did 13 times when the Democrats had the majority and Biden was in the White House. We did 13 short-term continuing resolutions to fund the government.“That’s what this is. It’s non-partisan, bipartisan. It is clean. It is simply an opportunity to give us the chance to continue to complete the appropriations process. But the Democrats have decided to take it hostage … they have hijacked this in a way that they think advantages them politically … I don’t … think the American people are going to see it that way …“We’ve got a bill sitting at the Senate desk, passed by the House, ready to be signed into law by the president to keep the government open, and [Democrats] want to hijack [it] to do over a trillion dollars in new spending, allow free healthcare for illegals, completely wipe out the rural hospital fund that we passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill to support our rural hospitals … It’s just the Democrat liberal wish list, and there’s no way. They’re not serious, but that’s where we are.”On Chuck Schumer’s government shutdown threats:“The radical left … just want to blow anything up that has anything to do with President Trump. It is … Trump Derangement Syndrome unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, so much so that they’re taking what I think are pretty bizarre steps, and frankly steps that I think are not smart politically for them.”[…]“I’m hoping that some of the Democrats over there on [Chuck Schumer’s] side of the aisle will come to their senses and realize what a bad idea [shutting down the government] is … After [Chuck Schumer] voted to keep the government open … he got blown up by the left-wing base in the country … that’s who they’re answerable to these days. It is the tail wagging the dog, and Schumer doesn’t seem to have any intention, at least at this point, of deviating from the strategy that would take us into a government shutdown. But I hope there are people around him on the Democrat side who see it differently.”On Democrats’ shutdown hypocrisy:“The argument [Democrats] made … for those that voted to keep the government open … was that you don’t want to give Trump, basically by shutting the government down … whatever he wants to do with these government agencies, and … to let the OMB make decisions about who’s essential and who isn’t … I think they think it is politically advantageous to them right now, and a benefit to their political fortunes, which are frankly in the tank at the moment. And they see this as an opportunity to be grabbed. But I think they’re wrong, and I think people are going to disagree with that.”On restoring the Senate’s confirmation process:“What the Democrats had done is broken [the confirmation process] beyond repair … We’ve got a whole new slate of nominees for a lot of these positions that we’re going to take up next, but I’m glad we’re able to get started, and grateful that we had the team all on board for doing what needed to be done.”On political violence:“It’s hard to fathom … where the country is headed and where all the rhetoric that’s been directed at President Trump and others, obviously is radicalizing certain people. And they’re resorting to political violence. It’s really unfortunate, it’s tragic, and I think it speaks to the need for change and reform among a lot of the political leaders and some of the Democrat left in this country who seem to be generating the kind of emotion that leads to these really tragic shootings.”PrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
