Thune Joins My View with Lara Trump
“There is a great unity. President Trump and his team, Speaker Johnson in the House, Senate Republicans, realize that if we’re going to use this two years for our majorities - hopefully four - to the ultimate advantage, we’ve got to be able to work together in a way that enables us to get a lot of that agenda across the finish line.”
Click here to watch the video.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) joined Fox News’ My View with Lara Trump.
On President Trump’s influence in Washington:
“He’s enormously influential in both the House and the Senate, and when it comes time for tough votes.
“And you know, sometimes there’s a certain art form to getting everybody pulling in the same direction, but he has a gift for that and obviously, when necessary, the speaker deploys him.
“We deploy him in talking with individual senators and House members, and so when it comes to getting his agenda across the finish line, I think he understands and realizes, as does his team in the White House, that he is the most influential figure in seeing that that happens.”
On priorities for budget reconciliation:
“The most immediate thing is this budget reconciliation bill, which we’re going to incorporate the issues … we talked about energy dominance, energy independence, I would say energy dominance more so than just independence. Tax relief.
“There are some priorities the president wants included in addition to extending the 2017 tax policy.
“We’ve got to get serious about spending reduction.
“So we’re having a very vigorous conversation about how to accomplish that within the construct of the reconciliation bill.
“It’ll have a generational investment in border security, and it will have a significant investment in military readiness, which is long overdue.”
On confirming the president’s nominees:
“Well, I tell people, Lara, that for better or worse, the Senate spends about two-thirds of its time on personnel. So a lot of it is getting the president’s team through the process. The nominations come through … Can you believe this: There are 1,100 executive branch positions that come through the Senate for confirmation, and we have all the judges on top of that.
“We worked really hard at getting the Cabinet through the process at the fastest rate in 20 years. We’ve cast way more votes in the Senate than any Senate at this point, going back to the Reagan administration.
“We were in session for 10 consecutive weeks, which hasn’t happened since 2009, so the pace is … you know, we’re moving at a rapid pace, and next up is, of course, reconciliation.”
On Republicans’ unity in Washington:
“We want to be good partners to President Trump and make sure that he has the people he wants.
“We push really hard … and a lot of our members, obviously, some of these things, they take time, and of course, we’re getting no cooperation from the Democrats. They’re doing everything they can to obstruct and block and delay, and sometimes it takes multiple votes on the floor.
“We’ve worked overnight a couple of times, we’ve worked on weekends a couple of times.
“There is a great unity. President Trump and his team, Speaker Johnson in the House, Senate Republicans, realize that if we’re going to use this two years for our majorities – hopefully four – to the ultimate advantage, we’ve got to be able to work together in a way that enables us to get a lot of that agenda across the finish line.”
Next Previous
