Senate Majority Leader John Thune joined Hugh today to talk about the looming “Schumer Shutdown” of the government:

Audio:

09-24hhs-thune

Transcript:

JDV: So here’s my sacred obligation to you, to all the law enforcement, but to every person whether they wear a uniform or not. Over the next couple of years, the Trump administration is going to do everything that we can to dismantle the networks, to destroy the funding, and to make it harder for people to kill one another just because they disagree with what somebody says. That is what we’re going to do. We’re going to fight for it.

HH: Morning glory, evening grace, America. I’m Hugh Hewitt. That was Vice-President Vance earlier today after yet another outburst of deadly left-wing violence in Dallas left two migrants dead and another assault on an ICE office. I’m joined by Majority Leader of the United States Senate John Thune, Senator from South Dakota. Senator, your old colleague, Senator Vance, now Vice-President Vance, laid it out. Do you have a reaction to what happened in Dallas this morning coming so soon on the heels of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and other left-wing violence?

JT: Well, I mean, I think that the facts and details are still coming in, Hugh, but it does appear that again, this is some left-wing activist resorting to violence. And you know, it’s hard to fathom, I guess, what, 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.

HH: Now Leader Thune, you’re like Mr. Level-Headed guy, and always even keeled. Very South Dakota. When Gavin Newsom goes on Colbert last night and says we’re not going to have elections in 2028, do you just think that’s a joke? Or do you recoil from that, because I don’t know what my reaction should be, because it’s so stupid.

JT: Yeah, I mean, and it seems like that just happens whenever he seems to open his mouth. I don’t know what to make of it, either. You know, what is this thought process that leads to these kinds of statements? And so I just…

HH: Well, he and your opponent in the Senate, Leader Schumer of the Democrats, are in a contest for dumb things to do and say.

JT: Yeah. I know.

HH: And the dumb thing that’s coming up, well, first, I want to thank you for the rules reform and holding the caucus together and for getting Mike Waltz to the U.N. and 50 other people around there. Did you almost lose anyone, because you kept the caucus together?

JT: Yeah, we were, it was fairly remarkable, Hugh. It took a lot of work. We spent a lot of time, you know, sitting down and having conversations and making the arguments. But in the end, I think people concluded we’ve got to fix this. And what the Democrats had done is broken it beyond repair. So we’re going to get more done. 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 onboard for doing what needed to be done.

HH: I’m glad you had Ambassador Waltz up there for the UNGA when the President was there.

JT: Yup. Yeah, totally.

HH: Let me turn now to the Shumer shutdown, because I can talk about Gavin all day long, but people are used to him. They don’t know what Chuck Schumer’s planning. I think he’s going to shut down the government for a long time. Is that the signal you’re getting?

JT: Seems to be. And yeah, trying to predict what some of these guys are going to do, but I think what’s happening, and Newsom’s obviously playing to this crowd, and so is Schumer in the Senate. But the radical left, Hugh, is, they just want to blow anything up that has anything to do with President Trump. It is, is this 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. But they can’t see. They’re just blinded by the hatred, and they’re doing some really strange stuff. I mean, obviously, Newsom’s trying to run in 2028, and so he’s out there every single day throwing crazy statements at the wall. But Schumer, some of the decisions that they’re making now, have real consequences. And I’m hoping that some of the Democrats over there on his side of the aisle will come to their senses and realize what a bad idea this is. But he’s, that seems to be where he’s going. And maybe, he feels like he doesn’t have any choice. After he voted to keep the government open in April, he got blown up by the left-wing base in the country. But that’s where, 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.

HH: Now Leader Thune, I want to make sure the audience knows a couple things. One, the House has already passed a clean CR to keep the government open while appropriations’ regular order proceeds. So the Republicans will pass that. But they need at least 7 Democrats to do so. Have any Democrats indicated their willingness to keep the government open with the 53 Republicans?

JT: John Fetterman, but we’ll see beyond that. Right now, everybody seems to be following down the Schumer shutdown path. But I hope, you know, what’s ironic about this, because you’re right, you know, we have a bill at the desk in the Senate right now, Hugh, that would keep the government open. Passed by the House, ready to be signed into law by the President. All we need is, you know, as you said, 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. I mean, they have hijacked this in a way that they think advantages them politically. But I don’t still think the American people are going to see it that way for the reasons that you just mentioned. 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 they want to hijack 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. And obviously, you know, it’s just the Democrat liberal wish list, and there’s no way. They’re not serious, but that’s where we are.

HH: So how long can they, shutdowns always end, and I want to assure the audience if you get a Social Security check or a Medicare check or any check like that, that keeps going. The entitlements don’t shut down. Essential government services don’t shutdown. But you can inconvenience a lot of people for a long period of time. How long do you think they’re willing to keep the government shuttered, Leader Thune?

JT: Good question. You know, and I’ve always argued that the Democrats are the government party. They are the party of government. And so it strikes me at least that this has some serious ramifications for them and their political constituency and their belief system, for that matter. But you know, how long they want to, if we end up in that posture, how long they want to keep it going remains to be seen. But I don’t know if you remember this. The argument they made in April for those that voted to keep the government open, the argument they made was that you don’t want to give Trump, basically by shutting the government down, was in effect carte blanche to do whatever he wants to do with these government agencies, and you know, to let the OMB make decisions about who’s essential and who isn’t. Because they do fundamentally believe they are the government party, which is why I think it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be really hard for them to sustain this over a long period of time. But we’ll see. I mean, like you said, 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.

HH: I think you’re right. They’re going to get hammered, and I also assume that they’ll fold eventually. In the meantime, I assume the appropriations process will go forward in regular order. Might you start a second reconciliation with your colleagues in the Senate and their counterparts in the House as a means of overcoming this, because you can do another reconciliation. You can fund the government forever if wanted. You could pass another budget in another reconciliation.

JT: Yeah, I mean, there’s, we did. We were able to get some things done frankly because of what the Democrats had done in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, where they actually did a bunch of spending on the reconciliation bill. Historically, that’s kind of been ruled out of order. But we expanded on that when we did the One Big Beautiful Bill and funded border security, funded national security. So you know, that would be, that’s something I think probably, my assumption is that we’ll explore all the options if we get to a point where the government is shut down, and it starts having the effect that it will over a period of time. But I still think that there have got to be Democrats out there who are wise to what Schumer is up to, or at least more than John Fetterman, and who will come to the realization that this makes no sense for what they believe in, and they are believers in government.

HH: So last question, this is the hardest of hard noes from the leader of the Republicans to the demands of the Democrats to add the spending to the short-term bill. Am I hearing you right? No, not now, not ever, never?

JT: Right. Yeah. That’s right.

HH: Senator John Thune, always a pleasure to talk to you, Leader. Continued good luck in getting things like the rules reform through that you did, the nominations through, the One Big Beautiful Bill. You are level-headed, and we like level-headed leaders. I appreciate your time, John Thune from South Dakota.

JT: All right, Hugh.

End of interview.