In an interview with Margaret Brennan on 'Face the Nation', Senate Majority Leader John Thune discusses the challenges and opportunities of Republican unified control in Washington, particularly the narrow House majority. He emphasizes the need for teamwork and working with the Trump administration to deliver on campaign promises.
The following is the full transcript of an interview with Senate Majority Leader John Thune , Republican of South Dakota, on 'Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan' that aired on Jan. 5, 2025.MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you for making time for usâ SEN.
I think it's- it's- it's always challenging, and especially in the- in this current political environment, you know, people have strong views, and as you might expect, and have seen, we don't always agree among Republicans, within the family. But I thinkâMARGARET BRENNAN: Particularly among Republicans. SEN.
âin the Senate- I know, it's a short amount of timeâMARGARET BRENNAN: Just two years.SEN. We don't have, at this point, I don't think, clarity on that. I think these are nominees who are new enough, they've been going around and conducting their meetings, which I think, frankly, have gone very well, but they still have to make their case in front of the committee. And, you know, we don't know all the information about some of these nominees.
Well, I think that, you know I- what I've always said is, and as a whip, every member's vote is their vote. You in the end can't force somebody to vote, you know, how they- against what their- their wishes are, what their constituents want them to do. So their vote is their vote. What I've always asked is that they not surprise us, and that if they give you- tell you something, that that's that that's their word and and you expect them to adhere to that.
We'll see there's a whole bunch of- of nominees, some of whom will have more Democrat support than others. But I think in the end, the Democrat leadership, in most cases, is probably not going to be largely supportive of some of the President's picks, with maybe a few exceptions. But what's more important to me is not how they ultimately vote. You're right. You pointed this out. We have a majority.
Well, I'm not saying what- they came out of the gate. They had their first reconciliation bill done in four weeks coming on it when they got the majority. MARGARET BRENNAN: $2 trillionâ SEN. It would be ideal if we could figure out a way to do things at the 60 vote threshold and there are a number of things we will. I mean, there are a number of issues where we're going to have to get 60 votes. We have to get 60 votes on appropriation bills. We have to get 60 votes on 60 votes on a farm bill, which is expired. Those are going to be bipartisan initiatives, but there are some things that you can do.
Well, I think that what we do know is we need physical barriers. We need technological barriers. We need more ICE agents. We need more Border Patrol agents. And yes, we're going to need ways of deporting people that are on that- on that list that you mentioned.
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