Thune Joins The Hugh Hewitt Show

Click here to listen. WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined The Hugh Hewitt Show. On the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act: “[T]here’s a huge … desire to do this for Lindsey and as a tribute to him, but also because it’s the right thing to do for the country … we’ve really got a chance to do something that helps shift the playing field in … Ukraine … “[T]hese sanctions target Russian officials, oligarchs, family members, foreign persons, Russian banks, and financial institutions, as well as this Russian ‘shadow fleet,’ which continues to allow Russian oil and gas to fund Putin’s war. So it’s important we get this done, and there was a big bipartisan vote for it yesterday, and we’ve got to finish it now. We’ve got to get it across the finish line.” On confirming President Trump’s nominees: “[N]othing shapes the future of the country more than these lifetime appointments to the court[s] … we are actually about 10 ahead of where we were in the first Trump administration in terms of getting people on the bench … we’re going to continue to focus on that and on the executive branch noms as well. “We’re going to move a package next week of 74 of those, which will keep us well ahead of where the first Trump administration was in terms of getting people confirmed to the departments and agencies that run the government as well. […] “[W]e are working to … virtually clear the executive calendar, which is both judicial and executive branch noms, and we’re going to stay focused on that … it’s part of the Article I responsibility that we have, and I think that getting these on the floor for a vote and ensuring that we’re fulfilling that responsibility and setting the country up for success by ensuring that we have constitutionalist judges on the court to me is a really high priority.” On Senate Democrats blocking the NDAA: “It’s crazy, Hugh … they’re making it all about Iran, but the fact of the matter is, funding the military is job number one. I mean, if you don’t get that right, the rest is conversation. “[W]e’re going to do everything we can to get that voted on again. […] “[I]t is incredibly irresponsible on their part. It is frankly … inexcusable, if you think about what’s at stake for our country, for them to hold up the thing that authorizes taking care of our troops, their pay, taking care of the military families, ensuring that we’ve got the right weaponry and technology to keep our country safe and to deter and defeat any threat that’s out there to America’s national security interests. So, it’s critically important.” On the SAVE America Act: “I strongly support it. I cosponsored the original version last Congress, and I’ll do whatever I can to pass it if there’s a clear path to doing it. But we did put it on the floor for debate, and we had it on the floor for over a couple of weeks. We forced Democrats to take a position on all of those commonsense policies. We’ve had five votes now on the entire SAVE America Act, or pieces of it, including photo ID, including citizenship to register. During the debate, no one spoke more consistently in support of the bill than I did … “[T]hey’re commonsense policies, widely supported by Republican and Democrat voters. They ought to get an automatic yes from literally every member of this body, but it’s the Democrats who consistently block it. “There hasn’t been a single Democrat in the five votes that we’ve had that has voted for it, and so that’s what we ought to be doing, is turning our fire on the Democrats … [G]iven their staunch, unwavering opposition to the bill, I think it should be a message we should carry to voters across the country and further highlight the contrast between Democrats and Republicans on the issue – and get away … from attacking each other.”