Democrats are fighting Republicans on just about everything right now, which has led to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) telling the caucus they need to be ready to come back to DC at a moment’s notice for a possible vote.
Thune thinks this is being done with a purpose.
The purpose is to keep Republicans from being able to campaign to hurt them in the 2026 election cycle.
Democrats did not exactly make it a secret that they had no intention of funding DHS beyond the two weeks that Trump had worked out with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) during the initial spending bill talks.
That is why some Republicans were unhappy, as they thought Trump took their leverage away by only getting two weeks while the rest of the government was funded.
Just prior to the partial shutdown, a Hail Mary was thrown to try to get a spending bill passed, and, not surprisingly, it was rejected by Schumer.
At the time, he stated, “The initial Republican response is incomplete and insufficient. It fails to address America’s concerns about ICE’s lawless conduct.”
Democrats now have their hill, and they are prepared to die on it since they don’t want DHS operational anyway (although there are some key agencies, such as TSA, which are now working without funding).
Leadership in the Democrat Party was even playing games with the media about the funding.
For instance, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), when asked if Dems were willing to drop any demands to get the government fully operational again, stated, “We’re willing to have a good faith conversation about everything, but, fundamentally, we need change that is dramatic, that is bold, that is meaningful and that is transformational.”
If that were a Jeopardy question, it would have been: How do you say something without saying anything?
Thune believes this is all part of Schumer’s strategy to keep Republicans from getting out there and pounding their message for the 2026 midterm elections.
He explained, "Their whole goal, and everything is to, you know, force us to stay around, force us to try and get members to take hard votes and just to tie people down so that they can't be back campaigning.”
Thune went on to say that the undecided voters are mostly going to be concerned about kitchen table topics, which makes it extremely important for the GOP to get its message out.
I don’t necessarily believe that Schumer is that smart to develop that type of strategy, but if that is what Thune thinks, as leadership, he needs to figure out a way to get around it. They all have campaign staff, so get them out there knocking on doors and shaking hands. I don’t want to hear excuses… I want results, as I am sure everyone reading this report does.
