Sen. John Thune (R-SD) is once again trying to defend his inaction on the failed effort to pass the Save America Act. Fresh off winning the leadership race for Senate Republicans ahead of next year, he went on Fox News, where Bret Baier pressed him on what he could’ve done differently. Thune remained adamant that essentially doing nothing was the best option:
🚨 JUST NOW: Senate Leader John Thune says he has NO CLUE how to "force" the SAVE America Act to the floor, because a talking filibuster is OFF THE TABLE for him Q: Should you have forced the SAVE America Act fight on the floor? JOHN THUNE: "I don't know how we'd force that fight on the floor." Q: Talking filibuster? THUNE: "You turn the floor over to control the Democrats...it's unlimited amendments." I think we should've TRIED. Be brave, be bold, make them speak and debate like Mike Lee called for! WE DIDN'T DO THIS AND LOST ANYWAY.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 10, 2026
Senate Leader John Thune says he has no clue how to "force" the Save America Act to the floor, because a talking filibuster is off the table for him
Q: Should you have forced the Save America Act fight on the floor?
JOHN THUNE: "I don't know how we'd force that fight on the floor."
Q: Talking filibuster?
THUNE: "You turn the floor over to control the Democrats...it's unlimited amendments."
I'm afraid isn't acceptable, John.
As Eric Daughtery noted, we tried Thune’s way and still lost. Now, we have potentially 57 Democrats in the Senate next year. It will nuke the filibuster and pass numerous action items that Thune and the GOP should've done if it had gotten ahead of this. I know about the two dozen GOP senators who would rather do nothing, rest on institutional deference, and think there are dividends in that. Who are they, so we can put them through the meat grinder? The Democrats were going to nuke the filibuster. They told us. We shouldn’t have strong-armed the holdouts, and we got a ton of our initiatives passed before the wave that washed us out of power. Instead, the reward we got as base voters is a do-nothing GOP Senate majority that thinks moral victories and deference to procedure are honorable things. They’re not if you lose. And they decided to stare Armageddon in the face and say, ‘oh well.’
It’s just laughable at this point: your enemy tells you what they’re going to do, and you do nothing to take the initiative. What was the thinking here? That we’d be in the majority forever?
What a blown call, and we don’t have the brain trust to put up much of a fight. That’s not to say surrender, but expect some ugly, ugly losses.
Paul Ryan and John Thune did more to stop conservative policies than any democrat.
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) November 10, 2026
Last Note: the DOGE cuts weren't codified either.
🚨 FAILING UPWARD: John Thune just got reelected Senate Republican Leader after admitting the midterms were "a drubbing" with "no way to sugarcoat it." His big lesson? Voters care about the COST OF LIVING. Groundbreaking. Every family in America could have told him that a year ago. Under Thune, the SAVE America Act never passed. The DOGE cuts never got codified. Seven senators wanted to delay the vote. He kept his job anyway. Same leader. Same failures. The base deserves FIGHTERS.
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) November 10, 2026