In politico, US Senator John Thune has some words for the activists out there who are throwing mud and trying to “cancel” senators for voting their conscience when it comes to the their judgement on the actions of former President Trump:
In his first interview since he voted to acquit Trump, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican on Thursday defended fellow Republicans who sided with Democrats on the “vote of conscience” and warned against shutting out dissenting voices in the party.
and..
On Thursday, the senator attempted to downplay those attacks, likening them to “food fights within the family” that hurt Republicans’ goals, He noted there was no evidence to support Trump’s claim of voter fraud.
“You’ve got to face the music, and at some point, it’s got to be over and you’ve got to move on,” he said, adding, “I think it’s just important to tell people the truth. The most important responsibility of any leader is to define reality.”
As someone whose main concern in winning elections, that’s also a caution that should be applied to those who are spending their time and energy trying to gin up a primary against Senator Thune, because they are butt hurt over the Presidential election. So far after a few months of howling about it, there’s sturm und drang… and not much else. I’d call it a disorganized sh*t show, but that might indicate a higher level of organization than is actually evident.
So far their efforts at recruitment against Thune consist of Bruce Whalen’s excruciating challenges at getting a facebook meeting in furtherance of his recruitment efforts to be anything other than 45 minutes late. Which seems prophetic.. because the only names coming up are the same old names who have been non-starters in the past.
And we keep rolling down the road to 2022.
Fact is that if Mitch McConnell had voted correctly to impeach… John Thune and at least a dozen other U.S. Senators would have followed suit…but the threat of assassination by Trump is obvious.
You are a nut.
You had more of a gentlemanly reply than I would have done.
HEY! That’s an insult to peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts and the like. How about we just say “You are a Democrat”?
Crazy Tapio.
Ah, a Trump-hating dufus.
There may not be a Republican candidate (yet) that will be able to unseat him in a primary, but that in no way obligates me to fill in the oval by his name. I refuse to vote for this person who has turned into the swamp creature we sent him to replace. I’m tired of politicians from SD forgetting about who sent them to DC, who they represent, and what the folks back home expect from them.
I’m tired of politicians like Thune pissing on our backs and then telling us it’s raining.
Pathetic. He is so out of touch with political reality it’s scary. He has a right to his opinion. But when that opinion is only shared by a tiny sliver of his party, he should be the honorable man he claims to be and not seek re-election.
Senator Thune, it is the right of the citizens to call for different representation; politicians are not guaranteed lifetime tenure (unless you live in an idiotic state like Massachusetts and your last name is Kennedy). Stop trying to squelch the right of the citizens to voice their opposition to how politicians are voting.
I think it is time for Senator Thune and Mitch McConnell to both leave office.
“I think it’s just important to tell people the truth.”
Well Mr. Thune……are your ready to live up to those words? Why don’t you come on to this website and engage us with the truth concerning the questions we all have about your representation of SD?
It is disappointing that the Senator doesn’t understand cancel culture.
Thank you Senator Thune. It takes leadership to get us out of the tit-for-tat and expectations of absolute compliance of view on all issues and positions.
You da man.
I think Thune and his ilk have a huge surprise coming. They think we will vote for any R on the ballot. I refuse to do that again. I may not vote D but I can leave the RINO’s oval blank. I’d love to see them all have viable primary opponents. Thune has had the last vote and contribution from me that he’ll ever get!
“Thune and his ilk”, or any politician for that matter, don’t care about, nor respect our undervotes.
Until such time that you can muster the tumerity to vote FOR the opponent of Thune (or for the opponent of others who fly under the ‘R’ flag and who need to be replaced) – you really have no leverage.
A vote for their opponent, regardless of their party affiliation, is the only message these out-of-touch officeholders will understand.
How he doesn’t see the difference between cancel culture getting an actress fired for her political beliefs and a politician voting against their constituents. The politician serves at the leisure of their voters and it’s their job. The actress’s performance isn’t tied to her ideology. He is falling into the democrats trap. I’ve given him money and worked my butt off to get him elected in the Daschle-Thune race. I’m reconsidering his ties to the swamp and not to his voters.
Senator Thune point is a party is not monolithic and demands for absolute conformity on all issues and positions or expulsion is a form of intellectual tyranny. Debate the disagreement but the call for those like Cheney to be cancelled is EXACTLY what we condemn progressives for. When you become what you claim to hate, you destroy yourself.
I disagree. Your job is your vote. It determines your re-election. Cheney knew she was voting against the wishes of the majority of her state. Its not cancel culture, its voting against the wishes of your constituency. Usually the latitude given to elected leaders can be broad. Obama Care was a issue where many democrats lost their jobs based on a vote. This is nothing like what progressives are doing in my opinion. Apple’s and oranges. How else do we get rid of politicians we disagree with politically?
Politicians lose elections all the time based on how they vote.
Someone losing their job over their political beliefs when they bake cakes or wash dishes is cancel culture.
Troy you truly exposed the current potential for division and ex-facto obliteration from certain circles within the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan said a person who votes with you 80% of the time is always going to be your friend in politics. The people who think we in any party need 100% compliance are Bolsheviks in nature; if you know history.
Donald Trump had tremendous fortitude in his ideology; which we in the GOP mostly agreed with, but his obsession with being always up on the Mantel was his demise. Servant Leaders are extremely rare.
I hardly ever, almost never, agree with Troy and Charlie- but these two finally hit the nail on the head.
Don’t vote for Thune in the primary, then we’ll have some idiot who could lose to someone like Billy Sutton in the Senate because Democrats learned that someone so out of touch with moderates – like Kristi Noem – is potentially a loser in a Statewide election. Too many of the ill-informed idiots here will never understand how DC truly works.
So yes, bring out someone like Shantel Krebs, Bruce Whalen, Neal Tapio who have never really been worth their salt, and then we’ll lose the seat, the seniority, and the influence.
When it’s a party of absolutes, the party dies. It’s supposed to be a big tent party, which includes multiple ideas and concepts of how to best lead. Thune has been a trust leader for the State. Supporting anyone other than him during the next primary and general election is stupid and down right ego acting out.
I hardly ever, almost never, agree with Anonymous but he finally hit the nail on the head. Agree whole-heartedly with his agreement with Troy and Charlie.
Mr. Anonymous, you are indeed righter than right here.
https://www.yankton.net/community/article_05982762-726a-11eb-95d0-f307e414a997.html
More from Thune this week, after reading this I come away seeing Thune as weak, spineless and out of touch. I just don’t see him as somebody willing to stand up to the left, take the fight to them, and win the battle. He seems too much as a go along to get along type, meanwhile the left gradually advances their agenda through incrementalism. Green New Deal anyone? Anyone sit through a rolling blackout this past week? Too much time and money has been invested in chasing the fairy dust dream that is zero carbon energy. That money would have been better invested in updating an outdated inadequate power grid while reliable power sources such as the clean coal plants remained on line. Instead we are now in the era of rolling blackouts, which started in California and is now reality all across the US. This is what ineffective leadership will get you.
Just to make sure I understand your point: are you claiming that renewables are to blame for blackouts?
Everything I read this past week is the grid is failing, can’t handle the increased demand. Also have been hearing the past few years wind and solar are not reliable during weather events such as this past week, no wind during the extreme cold, and solar isn’t as effective during the winter, snow covers the solar panels and long nights means less electricity. I’ve been hearing from the left for the last 30 years if we keep using fossil fuels life as we know it will cease to exist, yet here we are. What if we would have upgraded the grid first and worried about wind turbines and solar panels in the future, a lot of tax payers dollars have been spent on wind and solar.
Except utilities in Texas and Oklahoma are not built to current industry standards. They’ve also been privatized for over 20 years now. Because Texas, in all it’s legislators wisdom, thought it would provide better service. It also wasn’t built to withstand weather such as this, because it’s never really happened.
Texas receives on average, 204 days of sunshine a year, and generates roughly 16% of it’s statewide energy from wind power. It’s not supposed to solely power the state, but to supplemental to gas/oil power generation. Just like we use the dams on the Missouri River for it’s hydropower to generate electricity.
While they aren’t 100 percent, this disaster isn’t being exacerbated by them. Texas also made the decision to only have two plug, one to an eastern network and one to a western network, that have also failed horribly. The eastern plug has been overloaded and the western plug has completely failed, so they aren’t able to draw power from those networks.
Does anyone actually do any research before posting on here anymore? Good grief Charlie Brown.
“I tell people, every vote makes a difference. Don’t take it for granted,”
This quote is from the referenced article above. Funny…..that seems to be exactly what he, Rounds, and Johnson are doing by completely ignoring the concerns of many of those who put them into office.
Steve H writes that they are: “…completely ignoring the concerns of many of those who put them into office.”
Do you have concerns or are you just parroting Trump? These Senators are rock solid conservatives. You disagree?
Sorry to point out that the majority of the wind-driven power generating was immune to the storm in Texas while coal and natural gas-driven power suffered constant interruptions and downright catastrophic failures. But of course that is not what you want to hear because it ruins your false narrative.
Also nutty.
Someday the truth will come out about this year’s stolen election. But it will be too late with the speed the dems are destroying this country. And our grandkids will look at us and ask why didnt someone protect the greatest nation on earth when they could have. Thune doesnt seem to want to anymore…it has nothing to do with a differing opinion in the GOP.
I would likely not vote for or against Thune unless someone really inspiring like Dusty Johnson came along.
Dusty Johnson also voted against expanding Trump’s power to reallocate funding for the southern wall through existing Executive authority. Also, having worked with Rep. Johnson, while being a pragmatist, is not nor ever was a Trump fan.
He’d stand no chance against Thune.
Regarding electability, how can the McConnell/Thune approved candidates be more electable, if they are not electable within their own party anymore? This is baffling to me. Do people actually think any left leaning Dem would ever vote for an establishment Republican? What am I missing here?
An extreme Trumpy candidate cannot win in a purple state. Might not even win in a red state like SD with almost 1/3 registered Independents.
But a “normal” can attract the Rs and Is and maybe a few Blue Dogs, if such a thing exists anymore.
$$$ Thune-McConnell $$$ candidates have it $$$
Thune’s had money for multiple cycles because he ran unopposed and then against a lightweight Dem. He’s literally had no reason to spend any money, other than to help other Republicans in other places in tight races. Of course he has money.
So what vote or votes are Trumpies unhappy with Thune about? Voting to certify the election results the states forwarded, I guess. But I can’t imagine any others considering his voting record on the Trump agenda and judges surpassed even Hawley, Cruz, et al.
Seems it’s more that Thune didn’t kiss Trump’s butt as much as the Trumpies enjoy doing. I kind of appreciate the fact Thune is his own man. Even anything considered a criticism of Trump (“wish he wouldn’t tweet so much”) was rare and mild. His “shot dog” comment proved to be 100 percent correct. Don’t be such wussies. Actually, if Trump listened to Thune, he might still be president and we’d still run the Senate.
So I don’t get it. Sure, maybe he doesn’t adore Trump like some do, but then again they didn’t work with the guy week in week out for 4 years. Thune probably has more frustrations and disappointments in that than anybody could imagine or that we’ll ever know.
Do we really want some extreme, fringe, Proud Boy type primarying Thune?
Keep the eye on what matters: Regaining the Senate to stop the Biden/Harris extremism; regaining the House; getting an R president.
“Keep the eye on what matters: Regaining the Senate to stop the Biden/Harris extremism; regaining the House; getting an R president.”
Yah. Sorry. No!!
Replace “Biden/Harris extremism” with “Obama extremism” and we’ve heard this before from Thune and Rounds.
These things will be achieved, but Thune (and McConnell) cannot be part of it. They had their chance in 2016 … and did nothing with it.
Results matter. There needs to be accountability for your failures.
Buh-bye.
Kind of pathetic Thune has to do Lederman’s job for him.
Good point. I guess once you get your head up the dear leaders ass, in never comes out.
Why did Thune feel the need to defend Cheney?
She’s an adult and can defend herself.
Not sure why he interjected
Thune replaced Daschle because he lost touch. Thunes not even close to that but why defend Cheney?
She gambled and lost.
She voted he conscience with consequences. That is worth defending. It is real courage.
I do not belong to the Trump cult.
No one, and I mean no one, is more establishment than Troy.
To a fault
Put your name on the accusation if you are going to make an adhominem attack.
As I sign my name, you should know I have aggressively defended virtually all of Trumps positions and initiatives.
No name, you are just a coward unwilling to really take a real stand.
He has been screaming that the sky is falling for five years. “Rigged election” claims are just an insecure man trying to justify a possible loss. This election was not stolen. 50 Secretaries of State and 60 court cases prove that. Please stop pretending otherwise.
The only election fraud we know for certain happened, is when the President demanded 11,780 votes from the Georgia Secretary of State. History won’t be kind to him for that scheme.
In Politico…