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WASHINGTON (MITCHELLNOW) — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined America’s Newsroom on Fox News.
On Democrats prioritizing their far-left base:
“The Democrats just have to take yes for an answer. We’ve given them everything, essentially, that they were asking for … Yesterday, at their Democratic caucus meeting in the Senate, [they] had a pep rally … they are celebrating this. It’s insane.
“And what’s happening is the far left, which is the tail wagging the dog, is bullying the reasonable Democrats out of coming to the table. We have a proposal that they have been reviewing and looking at now for several days, mostly with things that they asked for, including a normal appropriations process: We open up the government, they get a vote on their Obamacare fix.
“They want to sit down, meet with the president on a path forward, [and] he’s more than willing to do that. All those things are in play, but they can’t take yes for an answer, for fear. I mean, these people are scared spitless of their base, and that’s what’s happening. Yesterday was a bullying session. The far left in the Democrat caucus bullied the reasonable ones out of coming to the table and settling this. I’m still hoping that these people are going to come to the table, and we’ll find out soon enough.”
On Democrats’ shutdown hypocrisy:
“All [Democrats] have to do is take yes for an answer. We’ve offered them a solution. The president’s willing to meet with them. I’m willing to give them the vote. All the things that they said they wanted. … This is Trump Derangement Syndrome – nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. And these folks in their caucus right now, they don’t care what the issue is, if President Trump is involved with it, they just want to fight.”
“President Trump is more than willing to weigh in and to talk to the Democrats about [the] path forward on how to fix the unaffordability and unsustainability problems of Obamacare, a problem the Democrats created. The president’s more than willing to help them fix that, but not while the government is being held hostage.”
On the consequences of Democrats’ government shutdown:
“All the president’s saying is … open up the government, then let’s sit down and talk on a path forward. That’s been offered up … I don’t know how you can be more reasonable … [Democrats] are being bullied by their leadership, by the far left in this country – and as a consequence of that, you’ve got troops, men and women in uniform are going without pay. You’ve got women and children who are going to be going without WIC and food stamps. You’ve got people who are working in airlines and airports, as you heard Secretary Duffy say earlier, and flight delays and everything that goes with that.
“The pain is multiplying for the American people, and the Democrats yesterday at their caucus meeting … were celebrating it. It was a big pep rally, and I just don’t know how you defend that to the American people, who are the ones that are suffering.”
