Senate GOP Whip John Thune On Whether Congress Can Move Fast With The President-Elect After Jasnuary 21, 2025

The Hugh Hewitt Show

Senate GOP Whip John Thune joined me this morning:

Audio:

https://hughhewitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/11-07hhs-thune.mp3

Transcript:

HH: Joined by the GOP Whip in the United States Senate, Senator John Thune from South Dakota. Congratulations, Senator Thune. I knew you threw your back into it. You were out there with Bernie Moreno and Dave McCormick and many others. You didn’t lose one seat. Congratulations. How are you feeling?

JT: Good. Thanks, Hugh, and it was a big night obviously led by a big win for President Trump at the top of the ticket. And I think what you saw is the Republican coalition grew around the country as Americans of all stripes banded together and really came together to say enough is enough. We’re tired of the failed Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda. And we, you know, if you look at the numbers, we gained ground in 48 states, nearly every demographic compared to the 2020 Election, improved our margins in more than 2,300 counties across the country. So it truly was a big night, and we’re excited about our majority in the Senate and hopefully a majority in the House and what we can do with it.

HH: I am so happy about Bernie Moreno, because I’m a Buckeye. But Tim Sheehy, I know you were out there with him, because he’s close. I know you helped Deb Fischer hold off a late charge. I know that you were working for Dave McCormick. By the way, is Dave McCormick safe? Is that victory in the bag?

JT: I think it is. I think Casey needs to, he just needs to step aside and concede that race. And I hope at some point the media calls it. If you look at where the numbers are coming from, where, what they’ve got left to count, we feel really confident about Dave McCormick, and talked to him…

HH: I haven’t given up on Kari Lake or Sam Brown, yet. I’m just, I just want to focus on what is possible and what got done. We didn’t lose a single Republican, right? Rick Scott, Ted Cruz…

JT: That’s right.

HH: They were all under, Deb Fischer, not one went down.

JT: And all ended up winning by substantial margins. You know, those were, many of them were close races, but you know, Rick Scott came up big in Florida. Ted ended up winning by 12 points in Texas, and Deb ended up winning by about, over 7 points in Nebraska. So you know, on the main, Hugh, I think it was a resounding, convincing message from the American people, and pretty much all across the country.

HH: Now Senator, what really concerns me, A) the filibuster is safe, at least for a while. In fact, the Democrats are going to drop that stuff, because I don’t want the filibuster to go away. But I do worry about the 100 days. Joe Biden just spent money. And money just gave inflation. Can we get real stuff done in the first 100 days like extending the tax cuts, securing the border, school choice, things like that?

JT: Well, that, you know, it makes a huge difference on what happens in the House. As you know, Hugh, if we have unified control of the government, we have the House, Senate and White House, we can use a legislative vehicle called budget reconciliation. And we can do a lot of the things you’re talking about. And obviously, the first and foremost is extending the Trump tax cuts, which if we don’t do that ends up being almost a $2,000 dollar tax increase for everybody, all families across the country, not to mention the impact it would have on the economy on business if the taxes go up by $4 trillion dollars. But then, you’ve got energy issues. You’ve got border issues. You’ve got so many things that we can potentially, of course, address. And while not, you know, obviously there are limitations on how you can use that in the Senate, but that would be huge. And we have to make the most of those first 100 days, first six months as we’ve got a narrow window here to get a lot done for the country. And it’s why winning the House would give us a huge opportunity to do that, so I’m hoping that these last House races come in for us.

HH: If that does, I want to lobby you now, Senator, to finish the wall and also to regularize the DREAMers at the same time.

JT: Yes.

HH: …because I know DREAMers upset some people, but Lincoln is our party’s first president, and he was a “with malice towards none, with charity towards all” kind of guy. Let me ask you about nominations.

JT: Go ahead.

HH: The President-Elect is going to have a lot more experience this time, and he’s going to have a slate. How quickly can those move through, get into position, and start, especially on the national security jobs? We’ve got to get people there.

JT: We do, and that’s why we’ve already, you know, there have been conversations with his transition team, getting names up quickly so we can start vetting them quickly. Hopefully, they’re people who have already experience so that they’re, that that vetting process can go more quickly. But yeah, as soon as we get the majority, which would be January 3rd, we’ve got to get on the floor and start moving. And the challenge, as you know again, the 15 top positions in our government are 30 hours on the Senate floor. We don’t expect the Democrats to cooperate with us in any way. It would be nice if on the key national security ones, on Defense, State, CIA and some of those, they would. And hopefully, we’ll find a little bit of that on some of those key positions that need to get filled. But we’ve got to move quickly, and that’s the challenge, because you mentioned, we’ve got, you want to get a lot done legislatively in the first 100 days. The Senate is also in the personnel business, and some of these, just by virtue of the rules of the Senate, take a lot of time, particularly if you don’t have cooperation from the Democrats.

HH: Do you have a word for Governor DeWine on the sort of skill set that he ought to be seeking for a replacement for Senator, now Vice-President-Elect Vance?

JT: I haven’t talked to him this week, but I know, I did catch up with him, you know, it’s been a while now, but as we were thinking through this. And I hope that, I know the Trump transition team needs to be in contact with him. And obviously, we’ve got to get somebody named in your home state that not only is somebody who is going to be solid, principled conservative and wants to get things done, but also somebody that could win the reelection, because they’ll have to run in a special election here in a couple years. So if you’re available for that nomination, Hugh, let me know.

HH: No, no, no. I don’t wnat any Jobs. It’s the greatest thing in the world. I am the rarest thing inside the Beltway. I don’t want anything from the transition. I don’t want to go to the inauguration. I want nothing. Senator, let me ask you, though, about the Senate GOP. You’ve been led for so long by Leader McConnell. He’s such a giant. He saved the Constitution with the No Hearings, No Votes policy when Justice Scalia died.

JT: Right.

HH: Can the Senate, you’ll have a leadership election. It will be hard-fought. After it’s all over, will it coalesce? Will the GOP coalesce in the Senate to work with Speaker Johnson if he holds the majority to get things done?

JT: Yeah, we have to. There are just no ifs, ands or buts about it. And I think the one thing, at least I certainly hope in the Senate that when this is all said and done, Hugh, everybody recognizes what a narrow window this could be. I mean, two years is another election. And who knows who’s going to be charge of the majority. And so we have to really move, move quickly, move decisively, and try and get as much of an agenda through as we possibly can. And I think that happens in the Senate, irrespective how the leadership election comes out next week. You know, I hope it works in my direction, but we’re going to, in any case, if we can get a House majority, we want to work with President Trump to move an agenda that we have really a fairly, I would say rare opportunity historically to do. And there’s a lot to get done, as you know.

HH: Now Senator, we have 20 Republicans defending seats in the next cycle. It’s an off, the first election after a presidential win is really tough for the incumbent party. But we’ve got great people like Thom Tillis, et cetera, but you’re going to have to find someone to run the NRSC again. You know, I’d love to have Steve Daines do it again, but who’s, who do you think wants that job?

JT: Well, I know somebody that does, and who would be great. But you’re right. Steve Daines, man, what big shoes to fill. That guy just crushed it.

HH: Oh, my gosh, yes.

JT: And he’s up in 2026. He’s got to run for reelection in Montana, which doesn’t entirely preclude somebody from doing it again, but makes it a little bit more challenging. And I think he’s, you know, boy, he did his duty this time, but we’re going to have our work cut out for us in ’26. We’ve got a tough map, very different than this year. And we need the right person in the job. But there’s, I think we’ve got somebody that could be really good at that, and I don’t want to share that, yet.

HH: That’s fine. Just so long as you’re thinking about it.

JT: Yeah. Yeah.

HH: Let me close with this. In terms of the President-Elect, do you think he’s going to tap any of your people? I mean, we need an attorney general, and Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and Mike Lee are all brilliant lawyers. Is he going to deplete your ranks by asking someone to come serve in the Senate? Maybe he could take a Democrat and put him in the cabinet and get a Republican governor to add some reinforcements?

JT: Well, and we’ve talked about that with the transition team, and I know they’re thinking through, too, just how many vacancies we can actually tolerate in the Senate. And we’ve got some really, really talented people who would make great Trump administration officials in what I think are some really key positions. But if they go very deep, then it creates challenges. Then you’ve got to have, you’ve got to get the right people appointed by the governors. They’ve got to run right away. And so that has its own set of challenges as well. I know that there are, as you mentioned, and there are some great ones and there’s some really good spots where they would fit. But I know that’s a factor into it that the Trump transition team is taking into consideration as they think through some of these key positions.

HH: Last question, Senator. The realignment, half of Hispanic males voted for the President. A quarter of Black American men voted for the President. Is the conference briefed on this and the incredible implications of the realignment that happened?

JT: Yeah, I mean, not, I don’t, I think we’re going to have a lot more conversations about that as we kind of do the after action plan on this, Hugh. But it was a stunning, truly stunning American election if you look at where the votes came for in this country. And obviously, it speaks incredibly well of President Trump to just appeal to ordinary Americans, working-class Americans, people who get up every day and do the work. And he’s not somebody that necessarily appeals to the elites, but he brought a big coalition with him, and we continue to grow and build it, because politics is about addition.

HH: Oh, amen. Politics is about addition. Senator John Thune from South Dakota, thank you.

End of interview.

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