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 Releases10.02.25Thune Joins The Hugh Hewitt Show, NBC“All the Democrats have to do is deliver a handful of votes to pass it, and we’ll be back in business …” Click here to listen The Hugh Hewitt Show and here to watch NBC.WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined The Hugh Hewitt Show and Tom Llamas on NBC.On Congress’ responsibility to fund the government:“I just don’t know how [Democrats] sustain this position … Schumer has led them … down this rat hole. And I don’t know how they get out of it right now. But … we need five of them to flip tomorrow on the vote, and we can open up the government and get back to work. But [Democrats] seem to be really invested heavily in their far-left special interest group strategy here. This is the shutdown of MoveOn.org and Chuck Schumer.”[…]“When [Democrats] vote to open up the government, we’re happy to talk to them about some of these other things. I mean, obviously I’ve made it very clear: We want to do appropriations bills. That’s something they didn’t do under Chuck Schumer, and he liked to write those bills behind closed doors in his office.“And so we’ve tried to have an open, transparent process, and we want to get back to that … I think a lot of his rank-and-file Democrat senators do too. But [Chuck Schumer has] got them right now in a tough spot. I’m hoping that they’ll see the light and realize that this isn’t, this is a losing strategy, and it hurts the very people that they, you know, profess to represent.”On the consequences of Democrats’ shutdown:“You’ve got a lot of government employees and folks across the country who are going to be harmed by this shutdown, and it was totally, totally avoidable and … Schumer’s put them in this spot now … I don’t how [Democrats] get out of it, but they’ve got to vote open the government first and foremost, and then we’ll talk about whatever they want to talk about later.”[…]“Most of these Democrat senators … represent … blue states, but they’re not states that are crazy left, and I think they’re starting to recognize what happened. And so we’ll see if that fissure continues. But … something’s going to have to give here, because they’ve gotten themselves into a heck of a bad spot, because … Chuck Schumer deployed a strategy, and they walked blindly and followed behind it. And now I think they’re figuring out it was a strategy that was heading them into a brick wall.”On Democrats’ manufactured crisis:“[Chuck Schumer] tried to hijack this short-term funding resolution to do a whole bunch of the liberal, left-wing wish list, and I think the American people are seeing through it.” […]“The far-left activist base in [Chuck Schumer’s] party is what’s driving this, and they want a fight with the president. This is politics … they’re trying to make it about something else. But the truth of the matter is, their base desperately wants them to pick a fight with President Trump, and they’ve chosen this. They’ve picked this hostage, I don’t think it’s a smart one, and I think it undermines what they’re trying to accomplish in the long run. “But it’s a fight they’ve picked, and Senator Schumer has deployed this tactic. The Senate Democrats have followed him, at least up until now, but I think that we still have a chance for them to come to their senses and do what I think is the right thing – and that’s to keep the government open, and then let’s talk about how we address some of these issues that they want to address.”On Democrats’ shutdown hypocrisy:“We can’t be held hostage to these … crazy, far-left special interest groups. If they start making this the practice, and we start giving into it, it’s going to be, it’ll become the norm … We need to hold the line and stay unified. House Republicans, Senate Republicans, the president of the United States, President Trump’s ready to sign the bill the House sent to the Senate.“All the Democrats have to do is deliver a handful of votes to pass it, and we’ll be back in business …”PrintEmailTweetNextPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
