Majority Leader Johnb Thune joined Hugh today to discuss the ongoing debate on the SAVE Act, the battle with Iran, and the confirmation prospects for Senator Mullin to be Secretary Mullin.
The transcript:
HH: If you’ve been watching C-SPAN for the last day and today, you’ve seen Republicans standing up demanding voter ID and citizenship before they vote in federal elections. And they’re pummeling the Democrats because of the way that Majority Leader John Thune set this up. The Leader joins me now. Leader Thune, welcome. Well played, Mr. Bond. This is, if this was a fight, they’d stop it. The Democrats could. Are they going to?
JT: We’ll find out here soon enough, Hugh. You know, I think the one thing that this is a, the SAVE America Act is a package of just common-sense policies that should get an automatic yes, literally, from every member of the Senate. And the core of it, as you know, is a requirement for Americans to demonstrate that they’re eligible to vote, and that they are who they say they are when they go to do so. And requiring a photo ID for a whole lot of things in this country is something that Americans expect. You would think that they’d be able to produce one to vote in our elections. So I think it’s, on the substance, it’s a winner. We just have to do everything we can to make sure that we’re pounding them over the course of the next week or two, and then we’ll see where the votes are.
HH: Well, I enjoy tuning in when I can. And whenever I want a break from using my voice, I just turn on C-SPAN, because we’re winning. So well played. Well played. Is there any idea of how long they’ll put up with this? Is there any way they can stop it? Democrats, I mean.
JT: Not really. I mean, what we did, we called up the House-passed version. And typically, to get a bill up on the floor in the Senate takes procedurally what we call a cloture on the motion to proceed, which is a 60-vote threshold in the Senate. Because this came over in the form of a message from the House, it was at 51. So we were able to get on it. And then I filled the amendment tree, which prevents the Democrats from getting some of the amendment votes on some of the crazy ideas they have. So it keeps it more, gives us more control, I guess I would say, of the floor and what ultimately we end up voting on. But again, we’ll see how long it goes. I think that we need to have a sufficient amount of time, obviously, to make the case and get this issue in front of the American people and hold Democrats accountable.
HH: So Leader Thune, if Chuck Schumer had a brainstorm, which would be rare, but it doesn’t, it’s not impossible, and decided I’ll offer to reopen DHS, we’ll vote on the appropriation bill if they’ll stop pummeling us. Would you take that deal?
JT: You know, I will say that would be, that’s a good question. I think that’d be, might be, might be an offramp for the Democrats, honestly. And we’ve got to get DHS opened up. And we’ve got 120,000 people at DHS who started missing paychecks, and many of those, of course, work with TSA or other agencies that are crucial for national security. And so yeah, if they were willing to make a deal on that, we might be, we might be willing to negotiate. But…
HH: Take the TKO. Senator, yesterday, one of your colleagues I talked to was about to go through a TSA line. And this senator had been patted down on their way home. I’ll be you a lot of senators are getting patted down unnecessarily right now, because they can’t be very happy. But I think about the Coast Guard and the Counterterrorism people. This is nuts. This is really nuts in the middle of a war.
JT: It is, and you know, it’s the second time they’ve done this, Hugh. And this is especially troubling, because we are in the middle, it’s a dangerous world. We’ve got cyber threats, and the Cyber Office is located within the Department of Homeland Security. So that’s also affected by this appropriation bill. And it just, it makes you wonder what is on their minds. I mean, I think they have become so obsessed with, I’m told there’s another No Kings rally out here in the next week or two that Democrats are, you know, that happened last fall and lowed down negotiations on ending that government shutdown. They are held so hostage by the far left in the country right now, and are so infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome and blind hatred of the President that they don’t want to do anything obviously that gives him a victory. And this isn’t, the White House has been very willing to negotiate. I mean, I don’t know how close you’ve been following the back and forth on this, but they really, on ICE and DHS, or I should say Customs and Border Patrol, the two things right now the Democrats have held hostage, that, to me, is a ‘defund the police’, ‘defund law enforcement’ position that they’ve taken in spite of the fact that the administration has made numerous efforts to engage with the Democrats on some of the issues they care about in ways I think the Democrats ought to be willing to accept. I mean, I’m just, this is about politics. Nothing more, nothing less for them.
HH: You know, Leader, I did not know we had another No Kings spectacle coming. I have heard the President called an authoritarian by Ben Rhodes, because Venezuela and Cuba and Iran. And the fascist talk it out there. You know what I say to them? Supreme Court ruled against the thing that matters most to him, the tariffs, and they said you can’t do it. And he didn’t arrest them. You know, it’s like the least authoritarian thing in the world is to abide by the ruling of the people who rule against the thing you want the most. And so they’re just silly.
JT: Yeah.
HH: Let’s turn to the war.
JT: Yeah.
HH: Five minutes ago, Nadav Eyal, a very good reporter out of Israel, posted the IDF confirmed it had struck the Iranian Naval Fleet in the Caspian Sea. The fleet had been used during the war in Ukraine to transfer equipment from Iran to Russia. I think the Iranians are getting pummeled, and they don’t know how to surrender.
JT: Yeah, it seems like it. I mean, and I think the President clearly understands the importance of reopening the Strait, whether it’s done the easy way or the hard way. But you know, operations have been going on now for less than three weeks, and thousands of sorties have taken place against their missile launchers, their ballistic missiles, all the, I just think they’re, you know, the administration, our military leadership, our war planners, have done a great job of just taking completely away from the Iranians their ability to threaten the region. And I think that’s what this is all about. And I just, so I mean, we need to finish the job. Hopefully, that’ll be done soon, but I think every day, we start, you know, we achieve more of our objectives in defanging the Iranian regime.
HH: I’m very glad that Senator Collins and our colleagues got the Defense Appropriations bill through. Is a supplemental necessary? And if so, can reconciliation be used to move it?
JT: Could be. It’s an option, obviously, that we’ll keep available to us. And honestly, in both Defense and Homeland Security if they continue…I think we have to, we’ve go to do what we can and make sure we’re doing everything we can to defend the country and the homeland. And the Democrats seem very unwilling to do that. But, so if a supplemental is necessary, we’ll obviously entertain it if the White House sends it up. We did, as you know, put a significant amount of funding last summer in the Working Families Tax Cuts Bill for Defense. But you know, obviously this costs money. And we need to make sure that we keep our munitions built up so that we, the deterrence is always the best thing that we can do as a country. You want to deter bad behavior around the world. You know, it’s not, it’s always been said that it’s not our strength that tempts our adversaries, it’s our weakness. And I think that’s why we’ve got to make sure that we’re sufficiently funding our readiness in a way that deters bad behavior.
HH: You know, Leader, I’m old enough to remember Grenada, and I’m old enough to remember Panama and 1991, and then of course 2001, Afghanistan, and 2003, march to Baghdad. Every time our troops do something big, I’m always amazed at the iterations. I mean, triple generation jumps in weaponry, accuracy, lethality. Do you sit around the Senate Conference Room and look at each other and say, “How do they do this?”
JT: You kind of do. I mean, you look at the operations that have been conducted just in this past, the time frame here starting with the B-2 bombing run in Iran earlier this year, Venezuela, this operation, it is remarkable, Hugh, how good these people are. And it makes you grateful as a nation that there are young men and women who want to serve their country and have the skill, the expertise, the experience, and the determination to keep the country safe. And I think we’ve seen that in so many ways just in the last few months.
HH: All right, last question, Senator Thune. Everyone always assumes the Republicans get along. They’ve never been to a conference meeting. And now, they’ve seen Senator Paul and Senator Mullin kind of coming to verbal blows today. Does Senator Mullin have the votes to get confirmed, because we need him confirmed quickly.
JT: We do. And they’ll, I’m hoping he’ll be voted out of the committee tomorrow. I think that’ll be the case, and then we’ll get him up on the floor early next week. We’ve got to fill that position, and he’s the right person for it. And yes, there are some, it got a little spicy, and there’s some personal history that those two have. But at the end of the day, it’s about the job, and it’s an important job. And I think Senator Mullin’s the right person to fill it.
HH: Yeah, I always say a little sparky is fun. It lights up the night. Majority Leader Thune, thank you for joining me. It’s always a pleasure talking to you, Leader. Good luck with the ongoing debate on the SAVE America Act. I appreciate that you got it to the floor and the debate is underway. Thank you, Senator.
JT: Indeed. Thank you, Hugh.
End of interview.
