Senate Majority Leader and South Dakota Sen. John Thune has predicted a mutiny in the Democrat Party, with enough Democrat senators joining Republicans to reopen the government as soon as Wednesday.
“I honestly, you know, I think there are a lot of them over there who know that their leadership is walking them off the cliff and really want to do something other than follow the leader,” he said to Fox News host Jesse Watters on Tuesday.
“But they are under so much pressure from the political left in this country. As you pointed out, all those special interest groups that (Senate Minority Leader Charles) Schumer has been coordinating with on message on this. They’re simply I think they’re stuck and they don’t have an identity right now. And this is just an example that they really don’t know what they’re doing,” he said.
“So they’re trying to save face with the base and blow the government up. And when they eventually come around, which they have to do, what’s the base going to say then?” the host asked.
“I don’t know. I mean, I think they got a big problem. And if I if you’re Chuck Schumer, you know, you’re just you’re kind of in a box canyon right now with nowhere to go. Their backs against the wall. But I’m hoping there are enough reasonable Democrats over there. We picked up three tonight when we voted on this. We’re going to vote on it again tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll pick up some more and eventually we’ll get enough to pass this thing in the Senate and keep the government open,” he said.
“But this was all unnecessary. This was all done to satisfy their left political base and Schumer’s fear. I mean, this guy is somebody who is running scared, obviously every single day from (New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and the other, you know, lefters that that he has to answer to.
“And what you’re seeing, at least every day now in the Senate, is his reactions and the way he’s going about the business of the Senate, in this case, shutting down the government. And it’s up to the Democrats. I mean, we passed a, I’ve said this you saw this earlier. This is our bill. It’s very straightforward. Funds the government and avoids a shutdown. And now they’ve blocked it on two votes. We’re going to have another vote tomorrow and they’ll probably try and block it again. But I think people are going to start cracking because they’re going to realize this is a losing hand,” he said.
“Yeah. And it looks like every time you guys vote on it, they lose more votes. And it’s only 24 pages, which is progress. Usually I can’t read it in time for the show, but this is this is good. Have you have you heard them ever talk so much about a sombrero?” Watters said.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s been a subject, and a really overused subject, all day up here today. So. Yeah. Who knew, right, that you could get this kind of content and get this kind of get this kind of vibe going about it?” he said.
The sombrero comment was in reference to an AI video President Donald Trump shared that showed Jeffries wearing a sombrero, saying that he was willing to shut down the government to get healthcare for illegal aliens.
In an appearance on MSNBC, host Lawrence O’Donnell opened a segment by mentioning the video to Jeffries.
“It’s a disgusting video. And we’re going to continue to make clear that bigotry will get you nowhere. We are fighting to protect the health care of the American people in the face of an unprecedented Republican assault on all the things, Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said.