Exclusive: Senate majority leader John Thune It is difficult to clear.
“Senate Republicans are committed to get through the nominees of President Trump,” Thune, who has been at the wheel The Senate For six weeks, Fox News said in an exclusive national digital interview.
Thune was interviewed prior to confirmation of Brooke Rollins as secretary of agriculture, who brought the number of Trump -genominees approved by the Senate on 16.
Only 11 cabinet nominees were approved eight years ago on this date during the first term of Trump in the White House.
Senate confirms another controversial nominated Trump cabinet
Senate majority leader Senator John Thune van South Dakota speaks to reporters on 11 February 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
And on this date four years ago, the Senate had only confirmed seven of the then chairman Biden’s Cabinet.
Rollins’ confirmation followed the confirmations of two of Donald Trump’s Most controversial nominees: former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of National Intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As secretary of Health and Human Services.
Gabbard and Kennedy were attached to almost festive lines in a room that checks De Gop with a majority of 53-47.
“I think the Republicans of the Senate have proven that we are united,” said the Republican of South Dakota.
Thune, a veteran of two decades who has served in GOP leadership in recent years before he succeeded the old leader Sen. Mitch McConnell As the top republican in the room, the team effort emphasized.
“What you are trying to do is just try to make the people around you better,” said Thune. “We have a lot of talent in the Senate, people who … we want to use and use and let them use their gifts and talents, done things here that have to be done.”
The senator pointed to his father, a former university worksheet and coach, who, according to him, would advise him to “make the extra pass if someone has a better shot. So what we have tried to look for extra pass.
Thune says that he “fairly regularly” met the president, personally, on the phone and via SMS.
President Donald Trump talks to Senate majority leader John Thune, Rs.d., Left, and house speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., After talking to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on February 6, 2025. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
“It’s a normal pipeline,” he said. “His team has also been really good about working with our team here. I think we had a very constructive working relationship. And I tell people, our stimuli are coordinated. We all want to achieve the same destination.”
Thune has not always had a constructive relationship with the often unpredictable Trump.
Trump was critical of Thune in the years after his first term and briefly considered supporting a primary challenge against the senator while he ran re -election in 2022.
Thune said that “like many people”, he in the past “had differences with the president.”
“But I think we now understand the things we want to do during the course of his term and the chance we have, which is rare in politics, to have uniform control over the government, the house, the Senate and the White House.
McConnell was the only Senate Republican who voted against confirming Kennedy and Gabbard. McConnell, who suffered from polio as a child and is an important proponent of vaccines, was critical of Kennedy’s history of high -profile vaccine skepticism.
Mitch McConnell (Andrew Harnik/Getty images)
“I am a survivor of the children’s polio. In my life I have seen vaccines to save millions of lives from devastating diseases throughout America and all over the world. I will not approve the reconciliation of proven healings and millions of Americans also not their survival And mention quality of life on scientific miracles, “said McConnell after the Kennedy mood.
Trump, who for a long time criticized McConnell, re -focused.
“I have no idea if he had polio. Everything I can tell you about him is that he should not have been a leader. He knows that. He voted against Bobby. He votes against almost everything. He is a very bitter guy,” ” Trump loaded.
Thune, interviewed after the confirmation of Gabbard and for the final vote on Kennedy, said that the 82-year-old McConnell “is still active here and is still a strong voice about issues he is passionate about, including national security.”
“So when it comes to those issues, he influences the influence and a voice that we all pay attention to,” said Thune. “He has a view of some of these nominees who may not follow exactly where I or other republicans have come down, but we respect his positions about this, some of these noms, and I know that on many big things you are ahead He will be with us.
Thune added: “I have had a lot of consultation with him over the years and in recent months and weeks, and we will continue to reach him if we think it makes sense to get a lay from the country that, on Based on his experience, he can help us navigate. “
Senate majority leader Senator John Thune van South Dakota, right, speaks to reporters, 11 February 2025, after lunch from the Senate policy on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Although he enjoyed a whole series of confirmation victories this week, Thune is realistic.
“I feel good about how it went so far, but we have a number of really difficult sleds ahead. We know that, and we just have to keep our heads low and do the work,” he warned.
Although confirming the Trump cabinet is currently task no. 1, Thune juggles with countless tasks.
“It is clear that the majority of our time is occupied to relocate the President’s team and to have its nominees confirmed, and we will continue to do that. But if we do that process, we will also look for windows for a To move important legislation, “he said.
He pointed to the Riley Act cloth, quickly accepted by the Senate and the house and signed by Trump in the law.
The controversial measure, named after a nursing student killed by an illegal immigrant while he jogs on the campus of the University of Georgia, requires federal immigration authorities to hold illegal immigrants who are guilty of theft -related crimes.
Thune pointed out that the legislation was granted two -part support, but he added that it is “a bill that responded to the election mandate, and it was a bill that Democrats and United Republicans distributed.”
He also punished his predecessor as a Senate majority leader, Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer from New York.
Thune argued that during Schumer’s term of office “the floor would get stuck. You know, voices would last forever. We just try to make a more efficient use of people’s time and let this place work on a schedule again. We are on again A schedule.
