President Donald Trump has defended Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) ahead of an expected Senate leadership vote, coming after significant Republican Party losses in last week’s elections.
Speaking at a White House press conference on Monday, Trump said he believes Thune is a “very fine man” when he was asked about the Senate GOP leader.
“I know him very well, but that’s really up to the senators. I like John Thune. I wish they could get more produced. You know, we’ve had Save America up there, we’ve had, you know, voter ID and proof of citizenship, and many other things,” Trump added, referring to the SAVE America Act that has stalled in the Senate.
Describing the challenges Thune had as the GOP leader, the president said: “First of all, you have 100 percent negative Democrats; they never vote yes; they always vote no. That means he has to get almost 100 percent of the Republicans, and you have some Republicans in there … that are very difficult.”
Some conservatives and Republicans were critical of GOP lawmakers in Congress. Democrats were able to gain significant majorities in both congressional chambers, winning Senate races in places such as Kansas, Texas, Ohio, and South Carolina.
Last week, outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Fox News interview that Republicans couldn’t advance Trump’s policy agenda while holding majorities in both the House and Senate.
“Why haven’t we done immigration, shut off H-1B visas? Why haven’t we codified Trump’s immigration executive orders? Why haven’t we stripped jurisdiction from the federal courts over deportation cases?” the Republican governor told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.
“There’s so many things that could have been done. They didn’t even attempt it.”
DeSantis added that “a lot” of Republican voters didn’t cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 elections because he believes they were “frustrated with the lack of productivity from Republicans in the House and Senate.”
Conservative commentator and historian Victor Davis Hanson also chided “do-nothing” Republicans in Congress for a perceived lack of action, suggesting it was a reason for their losses during the midterms.
Noting they were not able to pass the election security legislation, the SAVE America Act, or take concrete action against Obamacare, Hanson told The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek last week that “they really didn’t do anything.”
For his part, Thune said in an X post on Nov. 4 that Republicans will not “stand idly by” if Democrats seek to usher in policies to “unwind everything we’ve done.”
“Thankfully, we still have President Trump in the White House, and we’ll work with him to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism,” the Senate GOP leader wrote. “We cannot let their fringe positions become the mainstream.”
Some Republican senators, meanwhile, have signaled they won’t vote for Thune.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told the Washington Examiner that he would walk out of the room if the GOP leadership elections proceed.
“I simply won’t participate in business as usual. An election defeat of this magnitude demands change,” he also wrote on X.
His colleague Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) indicated on Monday that he may not support Thune, telling CNN: “I’m not going to pledge my vote to leadership. I’ll tell you that.”
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