Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said that it was difficult “to draw hard, fast conclusions” from a top U.S. diplomat’s testimony but the initial reports were not good, The Hill reports.
Said Thune: “The picture coming out of it based on the reporting that we’ve seen is, yeah, I would say not a good one.”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) “passed on a run for the No. 2 GOP leadership job in 2012. He’s unlikely to do so again this fall,” Politico reports.
“With Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) term-limited out, the South Dakota senator has all but locked up the whip job ahead of the biggest Senate Republican leadership shakeup in years.”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) urged House Republicans “to slow their push to release a secret staff-written memo said to accuse the F.B.I. and Justice Department of abusing their authorities to obtain a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign associate,” the New York Times reports.
Said Thune: “They need to pay careful attention to what our folks who protect us have to say about what this, you know, how this bears on our national security.”
“Thune also called for a Democratic memo rebutting the Republican document to be shown to the public at the same time.”
Even though Sen. John Thune (R-SD) called for Donald Trump to withdraw from the presidential race, he told the Rapid City Journal that he would still likely cast his ballot for him.
“Thune said the 2005 audio on which Trump can be heard describing his attempts to have sex with a married woman was ‘more offensive than anything I’ve ever seen.’ Nonetheless, the Senate’s third-ranking Republican said he would be voting solely for GOP candidates this election cycle.”
“It’s often said each senator wakes up, looks in the mirror and sees a future president staring back. But John Thune admits his ‘window’ for a White House run might have closed in 2012,” Politico reports.
Said Thune: “There are a lot of people on that track that I would be lumped in, I’m sure, with the ‘establishment-type candidates.’ Which is never a good thing. I’m not doing the things you need to do. And a lot of other people are.”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told The Hill that he isn’t ruling out a 2016 bid for the White House.
Said Thune: “The things I need to be doing right now I’m not doing and a lot of other people are. But you never close the door on anything, you never know what’s going to happen. But as of right now, no.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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