In a massive reversal, Senator John Thune (R-SD) seemingly shifted his support to the SAVE Act after months of dragging his feet and claiming there was insufficient support for the measure in the Senate.
For context, he has repeatedly minimized or discredited the Election Integrity Act, earning the South Dakota Republican the scorn of normal voters as well as RNC leaders such as President Trump.
In any case, he stated, “I think we can all agree that if you have to show photo ID and prove where you live to get a library card, it’s not too much to ask voters to show ID to vote in federal elections. It takes about 10 seconds and protects the security of our elections.”
For context in the State of the Union, President Trump skewered Thune. “Perhaps most importantly, I’m asking you to approve the SAVE America Act. To stop illegal aliens and others, who are uncommitted persons, from voting in our sacred American elections,” he stated.
Building on this point, he added, “The cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant. It’s very simple. All voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote… [it’s] so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat. We have to stop it, John.”
Speaking later to the press, Thune stated, “Well, there are a couple things about that. One is, once we get on, if we were to go down that path, is very hard to pivot and get back to open up the government, I frankly think we ought to, we need to deal make sure that DHS, TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, all those agencies are funded.”
“On that and so I’m hopeful there will be a breakthrough on that that’s going to require some, you know, obviously cooperation from the Democrats, who we haven’t seen a lot of so far,” the supposed conservative added.
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“But we want to get to the SAVE Act. We also, as I mentioned, we’ve got a housing bill that we can pivot back and forth to if the if we get a deal to open up the government. That’s harder to do once you’re in the throes of a talking filibuster,” he claimed.
Nick Sortor, sounding off on the matter in a post on X, said, “John Thune says there are now discussions underway to ENFORCE the talking filibuster for the SAVE America Act However, Thune is saying there are currently NOT 50 Republican Senators willing to go down that path — even though they’ve sponsored the bill RIDICULOUS. We need a COMPLETE OVERHAUL of the Senate Republican caucus. Spineless RINOs are allowing Democrats to railroad our country.”
In addition to dragging his feet about the Save Act, Thune has drawn scorn for supporting other RINOS. He said, “I’ve spoken with the president already today about Texas, and I’m certainly hopeful. I think, as you probably know, Martha made no secret of the fact that I hope the president will endorse John Cornyn.”
Watch the clip here:
“He is an incredibly effective senator for the state of Texas, a strong conservative voice here in the United States Senate, and represents, by far, our very best hope of making sure that Texas stays red in November, in that Senate election,” the RINO added.
Featured image from embedded video