Tag: john thune
Senate GOP Shuts Down Bipartisan Effort To Release Epstein Files

Senate GOP Shuts Down Bipartisan Effort To Release Epstein Files

A last-minute effort to compel President Donald Trump's administration to release all remaining evidence the Department of Justice (DOJ) has on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein failed in spite of a bipartisan push.

Axios reported Wednesday that an amendment Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tacked onto the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act narrowly failed to pass on a 51-49 vote. All Democrats and independents who caucus with Democrats voted in favor, while very Republican save for Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Rand Paul (R-KY) opposed it.

"My position has long been I think we ought to release those files and trust the American people, just like we did with the MLK files and the JFK files," Hawley said after the vote.

Congressional reporter Jamie Dupree observed that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who is regarded as a swing vote in the U.S. Senate who sometimes bucks her party, voted to table the amendment with other Republicans after talking to Senate GOP leaders.

Semafor reporter Burgess Everett tweeted that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) was "not happy" with Schumer's attempt to force a vote on the Epstein files.

"It's a stunt," Thune said. "We'll dispose of it."

Despite Schumer's amendment failing, a separate effort in the House of Representatives appears to be picking up steam. Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA.) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) are co-sponsoring a discharge petition called the "Epstein Files Transparency Act," which will automatically get a full vote on the House floor if they manage to accumulate 218 signatures. In addition to virtually all Democrats, Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) have signed on.



Semafor reporter Burgess Everett tweeted that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) was "not happy" with Schumer's attempt to force a vote on the Epstein files.

"It's a stunt," Thune said. "We'll dispose of it."

Despite Schumer's amendment failing, a separate effort in the House of Representatives appears to be picking up steam. Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) are co-sponsoring a discharge petition called the "Epstein Files Transparency Act," which will automatically get a full vote on the House floor if they manage to accumulate 218 signatures. In addition to virtually all Democrats, Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) have signed on.

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READ MORE: 'This is disgusting': Lawmakers break down in 'partisan shouting' on House floor

Click here to read Axios' full report.

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Suddenly, GOP Senators Are 'Concerned' About Kennedy's Lies And Misconduct

Suddenly, GOP Senators Are 'Concerned' About Kennedy's Lies And Misconduct

GOP Senators are now seeing what anyone with half a brain has known for months: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a dangerous quack who puts Americans' health at risk.

Multiple Republican lawmakers dressed Kennedy down on Thursday during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, expressing concerns with his anti-vaccine policies and his personnel decisions.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon by trade who cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy, took a page out of the playbook of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, saying that he was "concerned" about Kennedy’s stance on vaccines.

“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Barrasso said. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don't know who to rely on."

Of course, just six months ago Barrasso was gung-ho for Kennedy, declaring that the Senate should confirm him because he’d “make America healthy again.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was also a doctor before being elected to the Senate, said that Kennedy is making it harder for people to get vaccines, breaking a promise that Cassidy said he made before his confirmation vote.

“We’re denying people vaccine,” Cassidy said at the hearing.

In order to justify his obviously wrong-headed decision to confirm him, Cassidy said in February that he was confident that Kennedy would ensure access to vaccines.

“Now, Mr. Kennedy and the administration reached out seeking to reassure me regarding their commitment to protecting the public health benefit of vaccination. To this end, Mr. Kennedy and the administration committed that he and I would have an unprecedentedly close collaborative working relationship if he is confirmed. We will meet or speak multiple times a month. This collaboration will allow us to work well together and therefore to be more effective,” Cassidy said during a speech on the Senate floor, which has now aged like milk in the sun.

Meanwhile, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina also lambasted Kennedy for firing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez just a month after the Senate voted to confirm her.

"I don't see how you go over four weeks from 'a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a longtime champion of MAHA values, caring and compassionate, and brilliant microbiologist ' and four weeks later fire her," he said.

Monarez said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that she was fired because she wouldn't approve the recommendations from a vaccine advisory panel that Kennedy stacked with anti-vax quacks. At the hearing, Kennedy disputed that, ridiculously claiming that Monarez was fired because she told him that she was not a trustworthy person.

Before voting to confirm Kennedy, Tillis said that he hoped he would “go wild” when he took the reins of HHS. Looks like Tillis got what he wished for.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune also expressed frustration with Kennedy’s decision to fire Monarez.

“Honestly he’s got to take responsibility," he said. "We confirm these people, we go through a lot of work to get them confirmed.”

Of course, it was always clear that Kennedy—a brain worm-addled, well-known anti-vaxxer—was going to be a disaster for public health.

"GOP senator votes to confirm anti-vaxxer, is shocked by anti-vax policy," Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts wrote on X, mocking Barrasso's shock that Kennedy would implement anti-vax policies.

Ultimately, Republicans had the chance to vote against Kennedy’s confirmation but failed. And while it's new for these lawmakers to speak up and criticize Kennedy, their words will mean nothing without action to remove him from his position.

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

Senate Republicans Will Force 'Major' Changes In House GOP Budget

Senate Republicans Will Force 'Major' Changes In House GOP Budget

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was reminded how small his House majority is when, on Tuesday, February 25, a spending bill narrowly passed in a 217-215 vote. The bill didn't receive any Democratic votes at all, but only one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massey of Kentucky, voted "no."

Had there been a few more GOP defections, the bill would not have passed. And now, according to Politico, the bill faces another hurdle: Senate Republicans.

In an article published on February 26, Politico reporters Jordain Carney, Katherine Tully-McManus and Benjamin Guggenheim explain, "Despite a razor-thin 217-215 House vote Tuesday, GOP senators indicated Wednesday they would not accept Speaker Mike Johnson's fiscal framework as-is — heralding a rough road for President Donald Trump's legislative agenda on Capitol Hill.That's not to say they want to start from scratch: Most Senate Republicans said Wednesday that they were prepared to switch to the House's one-bill approach after spending more than two months pushing a competing two-bill plan. But they want major, contentious changes to policy choices embedded in the House plan."

According to a Politico source, conservative Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told senators "that there will need to be changes to the House budget and that there will be an informal meeting next week to start trying to reconcile the two sides."

Thune, the Politico journalists report, described the bill passed in the House as "a first step in what will be a long process, and certainly not an easy one."

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said of the bill, "It doesn't fit the president's plan in its current form, so we would have to make some changes."

Carney, Tully-McManus, and Guggenheim note, "Immediately after the House approved its plan Tuesday, Thune called for any Republican tax bill to include a permanent extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That was an implicit criticism of the House budget blueprint, which allows for $4.5 trillion in net tax cuts — which tax writers in both chambers say won't be enough to allow for TCJA permanency along with Trump's other tax priorities."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

New GOP Senate Leader Is Ex-Lobbyist Who Aims To Slash Social Security

New GOP Senate Leader Is Ex-Lobbyist Who Aims To Slash Social Security

Senate Republicans on Wednesday elected Sen. John Thune of South Dakota—a former corporate lobbyist and close ally of Sen. Mitch McConnell—as the leader of their conference for the upcoming term, when the GOP will have a 53-seat majority.

Republican lawmakers chose Thune over Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who was favored by allies of President-elect Donald Trump.

"Senators have received angry phone calls from constituents demanding to know how their representatives plan to vote, following MAGA world's embrace of Scott," The Washington Post reported. The leadership election was conducted via secret ballot.

In a statement Wednesday, Thune said he is "extremely honored to have earned the support" of the Senate GOP conference and stressed that "this Republican team is united behind President Trump's agenda."

"Our work starts today," Thune added.

Before winning election to the Senate in 2004, Thune worked as a lobbyist for several sectors including the railroad industry. The Lever reported last year that as part of his lobbying work for the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern (DM&E) Railroad, Thune "helped the company procure a $230 million loan from the Federal Railroad Administration."

"In 2015, Thune reprised his advocacy for the rail industry, leading an effort to repeal an Obama administration regulation requiring improved, electronic braking systems on some hazmat trains," the outlet added. "The following year, he received the first-ever 'Railroad Achievement Award' presented by the Association of American Railroads, the industry's main lobbying group."

Thune is also "one of the biggest recipients of oil and gas money in Congress," the youth-led Sunrise Movement noted Wednesday following his election as leader of the incoming GOP Senate.

Over the course of his Senate career, Thune has received more than $1.16 million in campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.

Thune's top contributor between 2019 and 2024 was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the right-wing pro-Israel lobbying group.

"Thune has called for taking the debt limit hostage to force cuts to Social Security."

Thune will take the reins of the Senate GOP conference as the party readies another round of tax cuts for the rich and large corporations—one of Trump's top priorities. Thune is a leading advocate of repealing the estate tax, a move that would benefit a small number of wealthy Americans.

Congress is also barreling toward another potentially damaging fight over the debt ceiling, which is set to be reinstated on January 2, 2025.

Thune has previously expressed support for leveraging the debt limit—and the threat of a catastrophic default—to secure steep cuts to federal spending and possible changes to Social Security such as raising the retirement age, which would slash benefits across the board. Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy group, voiced alarm over Thune's debt ceiling stance following his election as Senate Republican leader on Wednesday.

"Thune has called for taking the debt limit hostage to force cuts to Social Security," Nancy Altman, the group's president, said in a statement.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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