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EXCLUSIVE: Leader of the Senate John Thune You are doing a difficult job.
“The Senate Republicans have pledged to overcome President Trump’s nominees,” Thune, who has been in the labor direction The Senate For six weeks, he told Fox News in an exclusive national digital interview.
Thune was interviewed before the confirmation of Brooke Rollins as Secretary of Agriculture, which brought to 16 the number of Trump nominees approved by the Senate.
Only 11 cabinet nominees were approved on this date eight years ago during Trump’s first mandate in the White House.
The Senate confirms another Trump Cabinet Nominated controversial
The leader of the majority of the Senate, Senator John Thune of Dakota del Sur speaks with journalists on February 11, 2025. (Photo AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
And on this date four years ago, the Senate had confirmed only seven of the Cabinet nominees of then President Biden.
Rollins’s confirmation followed the confirmations of two from Donald Trump’s Nominated most controversial: former representative Tulsi Gabbard as director of National Intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Gabbard and Kennedy were confirmed by the votes close to the party line in a camera that the Republican party controls with a majority of 53-47.
“I think the Senate Republicans have shown that we are united,” said South Dakota Republican.
Thune, a two -decades veteran of the Senate who served in the leadership of the Republican Party in recent years before the leader of a long time Senator Mitch McConnell As the best republican in the camera, he emphasized the effort of the team.
Go here for the latest Fox News report on the first 100 days of President Trump in the White House
“What you try to do is try to improve the people around you,” said Thune. “We have a lot of talent in the Senate, people who … we want to implement and use and let them use their gifts and talents (to) do things here that should be done.”
The senator pointed to his father, a former athlete and university coach, who said he would advise him to “make the additional pass if someone has a better opportunity. So, what we have been trying to do is find an opportunity to make the extra pass .
Thune says that he has gathered “quite regularly” with the president, in person, by phone and by text message.
President Donald Trump talks to the leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., left, and the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, Republican of La-La., After speaking at break of National Prayer in Washington on February 6, 2025. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
“It’s a regular pipe,” he said. “His team has also been really good about working with our team here. I think we have had a very constructive working relationship. And I tell people that our incentives are aligned. We all want to reach the same destination.”
Thune has not always had a constructive relationship with the often unpredictable Trump.
Trump criticized Thune in the years after his first term and briefly considered the support of a main challenge against the senator while running for re -election in 2022.
Thune said that “like many people”, he has “differences with the president in the past.”
“But I think that at this time, we understand the things we want to do in the course of its term and the opportunity we have, which is rare in politics, to have a unified control of the government, the Chamber, the Senate and the White House .
McConnell was the only republican of the Senate to vote against confirming Kennedy and Gabbard. McConnell, who suffered from Polio as a child and is an important vaccine defender, criticized the history of Kennedy of skepticism of high profile vaccines.
Mitch McConnell (Andrew Harnik/Getty images)
“I am a survivor of the childhood polio. In my life, I have seen that vaccines save millions of lives of devastating diseases throughout the United States and worldwide. I will not tolerate the re-liting of proven priests and neither millions of Americans who attribute their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles, “McConnell said after Kennedy’s vote.
Trump, who for a long time criticized McConnell, pointed again.
“I have no idea if I had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been a leader. He knows it. He voted against Bobby. He votes against almost everything. He is a very bitter guy,” Trump , Trump loaded.
Thune, interviewed after Gabbard’s confirmation and before the final vote on Kennedy, said McConnell, 82, is still “active here and remains a strong voice on the issues that are passionate, including national security.”
“Then, when it comes to those problems, it has overcome the influence and a voice to which we all pay attention,” said Thune. “It has views about some of these nominees that may not track exactly the place where I or other Republicans have lowered, but we respect their positions in these, some of these noms, and I know that in many big things ahead of us ahead of us , he will be with us.
Thune added: “I have had many consultations with him over the years and in recent months and weeks, and we will continue to reach him when we believe it makes sense to obtain a layman of the land on which he is based. His experience, he can Help us navigate. “
The leader of the majority of the Senate, Senator John Thune from South Dakota, on the right, speaks with journalists, on February 11, 2025, after a Senate’s policy lunch in Capitol Hill. (Photo AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
While he has enjoyed a series of confirmation victories this week, Thune is realistic.
“I feel good about how it has gone so far, but we have a very hard sled ahead. We know it, and we just have to keep the head down and do the job,” he warned.
While confirming that Trump’s cabinet is currently the number 1 work, Thune is juggling with numerous tasks.
“Obviously, most of our time has been occupied by moving the president’s team and confirming his nominees, and we will continue to do so. But as we move forward, we are also looking for windows to move important legislation,” he said.
He pointed out Lakn Riley’s Law, quickly approved by the Senate and the Chamber and signed the law by Trump.
The controversial measure, which bears the name of a nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant while journery at the Campus of the University of Georgia, requires that federal immigration authorities stop the illegal immigrants declared guilty of crimes related to the heist.
Thune said that the legislation obtained bipartisan support, but added that it is “a bill that responded to the electoral mandate, and was a bill that divided the United Democrats and Republicans.”
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He also punished his predecessor as leader of the majority of the Senate, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer from New York.
Thune argued that during the mandate of Schumer “the floor would get stuck. You know, the votes would take eternity. We are only trying to make a more efficient use of people’s time and make this place operate in a schedule again. We are again. I will continue doing that and returning to the regular order. “
