South Dakota Senator and Senate Majority Leader John Thune is on record noting that the US Senate will continue to probe corruption involving the Biden family, despite President Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden this week:

“President Biden repeatedly lied to the American people,” Thune said in an exclusive statement to The Daily Wire. “His ‘full and unconditional’ pardon for his son, which covers time when President Biden was a private citizen, raises further questions about the extent of Hunter Biden’s crimes.”

“This pardon, and the repeated lies the president and his administration told about it, will be a shameful bookend to President Biden’s tenure in office, and I would be supportive of Congress continuing to look into allegations of corrupt behavior,” he added.

Read the entire story here on DailyWire.com.

Jackley Urges U.S. Senate Confirmation of Pam Bondi as United States Attorney General

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is part of a 30-member coalition of Attorneys General and Attorneys General-elect who are urging the United States Senate to swiftly confirm Pam Bondi as the next United States Attorney General in January.

“I served with Pam when she was the Florida Attorney General, and she will be a strong advocate for public safety,” said Attorney General Jackley.  “Pam is the right person to put the U.S. Justice Department back on the proper track.” 

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Minority Whip John Thune, the South Dakota Senator who becomes Senate Majority Leader in January, the Attorneys General group praised Nominee Bondi for her passion for justice, commitment to the rule of law, and her efforts against human trafficking and illegal drugs.

Other Attorneys General and Attorneys General-elect on the letter are from: Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The letter can be found here: https://www.myfloridalegal.com/sites/default/files/2024-12/bondi-letter-12.03.24.pdf

-30-

It’s the season, as holiday greetings begin to arrive from our elected officials, and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, along with his family, has Christmas greetings out to his many friends across South Dakota:

SD Strong might be an early beneficiary of a fundraiser they had arranged with the Lt. Governor.

With Governor Kristi Noem all but assured to become the director of Homeland Security, the hunt with the Lt. Governor has now become an opportunity for face time with the incoming Governor:

You can buy a ticket to attend the Christmas Party where you can bid on the hunt with Larry Rhoden here.

South Dakota Searchlight has an editorial up today, noting “lawmakers seek solutions for problems best handled by parents” lamenting another attempt at government regulation by legislators who claim to oppose big government:

According to an article in Forbes, the Free Speech Coalition believes the age-verification process is “invasive and burdensome with significant privacy risks for adult consumers.” In the same article, an attorney from the ACLU said the Texas law allows “the government to rob adults of their online privacy and burden their access to protected speech, all under the guise of protecting children.”

and..

Is someone in state government going to be tasked with visiting each site to see if it’s complying with the state’s age-verification law?

A state law that seeks to monitor the internet is not the answer. Lawmakers should put their efforts into making sure parents have the resources they need to protect their children themselves. That could mean literature on how to talk to kids about staying safe online or a state stipend that helps with the purchase of web filters or blocking software.

Read the entire article here at South Dakota Searchlight.

The “not ready for prime time” candidates for SDGOP Chair are still out there lurking. And over the Thanksgiving holiday, the one who was involved in the no on H group sent out a postcard, courtesy of an old laser printer.

It’s nearly illegible, but he sent out a postcard:

The return address was the highlight of what you could read. God help you if you want to contact him, because you’re out of luck on that portion.

Still waiting for somebody good to step in the contest. Because to date, we haven’t even managed to come up with “adequate” yet.

It just goes to show you, sometimes it’s not what you know it’s who you know:

President Biden announced Sunday he signed a pardon for his son, Hunter, arguing the charges against his son were brought for political reasons

Read the developing story here at the Hill.

The End of Open Borders
By Sen. John Thune

It’s been clear for a while now that an enduring legacy of the Biden-Harris administration will be the historic immigration crisis at our southern border. The last four years have been the four highest years of illegal immigration ever recorded. This record-breaking illegal immigration crisis didn’t just happen on its own, the Biden-Harris administration created it. For those of us who have been sounding the alarm about the dangers of an open border for years, it comes as no surprise that the American people are ready to turn the page on this administration’s failed policies.

On the day he took office, the president began dismantling President Trump’s border security policies, and illegal immigration soon began surging in response. Between official U.S. Customs and Border Protection encounters and known gotaways, there have been somewhere around 10 million migrant encounters at our southern border on President Biden’s watch. To put that number in perspective, that’s larger than the population of the vast majority of U.S. states – and that’s just the individuals we know about. There are undoubtedly individuals who have made their way into our country over the past four years who have been neither seen nor apprehended.

It’s essential to remember that the situation at the border doesn’t just affect border states. South Dakota is about as far from our southern border as you can get, but law enforcement officials consistently tell me that deadly drugs in our state can be traced back to the southern border. Then there are the bad actors who are able to enter the country because of the chaos at the border. Individuals with terrorist ties and gang members have been caught after crossing the border illegally. And we’ve seen tragic cases of Americans killed by illegal immigrants who should never have been in this country in the first place.

Next year, under the Trump administration and with Republican majorities in Congress, the American people can expect that border security will be a top priority. That starts with restoring the border security policies of the first Trump administration, letting Border Patrol do its job, and beginning to deport those who are in the country illegally.

If recent reports are accurate, immigration officials are preparing for a possible final surge before President Trump takes office – a clear sign, if one were needed, that migrants regard President Biden as the open-border president. Final surge or no final surge, the days of this border crisis are numbered. For the sake of our security and the rule of law, President Trump and the Republican Congress will take decisive action to fix the mess created by the Biden-Harris administration.

###