Free Republic

The filibuster, not any candidate, is what Republican voters are rejecting across the country There is no question that President Donald Trump is the most powerful person in the Republican Party, but it is equally clear that he was not the reason for four-term Texas Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, getting trounced in his primary Tuesday night. That was all the voters.When Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Cornyn late last week, the die was already cast. The president, not surprisingly, just wanted his name associated with the win, and that is something that Senate Majority Leader John Thune,...

*** Here’s the plan, which isn’t easy, but is doable. First, Thune has to go. Never before in the history of the Senate has a majority leader of the president’s own party kept the Senate in session to prevent recess appointments, and he has refused even to bring the SAVE America Act up for debate. ... *** According to Rule 3 of the Senate Republican Conference, it takes only five senators to force a meeting to call for Thune’s replacement. ... In the privacy of a secret ballot, the “palace coup” needs just 27 votes to finalize the deed. ......

WASHINGTON — Objections to the Trump administration’s controversial anti-weaponization fund prompted Senate Republican leaders on Thursday to punt a vote on a GOP package to fund ICE and Border Patrol until June, two GOP sources familiar with the discussions told NBC News.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is standing by establishment favorite John Cornyn even after President Donald Trump threw his full support behind Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the explosive Texas Senate runoff showdown. Thune publicly broke with Trump on Tuesday, telling reporters he would continue backing Cornyn despite the president’s endorsement of Paxton, exposing a growing divide between Senate GOP leadership and the America First movement. “Cornyn is a principled conservative. He is a very effective senator for the state of Texas,” Thune said following Trump’s endorsement announcement. “None of us can control what the president does. That doesn’t...

After Trump's Thursday announcement praising her border security work, including what Noem called the 'most secure border in American history' and $13 billion in taxpayer savings, online conservatives urged her to primary Thune in South Dakota's 2028 race. Critics label Thune disloyal with a 51% Liberty Score and past bipartisan moves, while figures like radio host Jeff Kuhner predict Noem would crush him thanks to her MAGA ties and home-state popularity. Noem has stayed silent on any Senate bid, and with Thune's $20 million war chest and strong approvals, the talk remains early speculation amid GOP tensions. This story is...

No Trump judges, no voter ID SAVE Act, 50 bills already passed by the house in limbo. Pardon my language, but this guy is a worthless piece of shit. He’s worse than a grifter Democrat. Fetterman has done more for the Republican platform than this weasel. Treacherous rat.

By now it looks like the SAVE Act has two chances of getting passed - slim and none. John Thune found every creative trick to engineer the GOP's usual Surender Theater to the Democrats, despite Voter ID being a bipartisan 80/20 issue. Thom Tillis shoved voters' noses in it by hosting a "Doggie Gras" on Capitol Hill, and when he got pushback simply sneered at us that he could "walk and chew gum at the same time."And Tillis now supports James Comey. Because of course he does.Democrat Lisa Murkowski, 50/50 Susan Collins (who is sadly the best we can get...

"Yes, the Vice President, acting as the President of the Senate, has the constitutional authority to influence filibuster rules, primarily by making rulings that allow the Senate to change procedures with a simple majority rather than the typical 60-vote threshold. This authority is exercised by interpreting or challenging existing rules as unconstitutional, a power used historically to eliminate filibusters for executive and judicial nominees."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is facing mounting backlash after effectively shutting down momentum to eliminate the filibuster—despite renewed pressure from Donald Trump and a growing number of Republicans who say the rule is crippling the party’s agenda. Behind closed doors this week, Thune urged Republicans to stop even talking about ending the filibuster, siding with moderates who want to preserve the 60 vote threshold that has repeatedly blocked conservative legislation. That position is now drawing fire from within his own party. Trump has been crystal clear: get rid of the filibuster and start passing laws. “I say, end the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following months of urging from President Trump and the American people to pass the SAVE Act and secure the integrity of U.S. elections, the party that promised to save America announced that it wasn't really interested in saving America anymore. Republican leaders in the Senate held a press conference on Tuesday to officially set aside any plan to move forward with the SAVE Act, citing a waning desire to fulfill countless campaign promises to save the country. "We know we campaigned on saving the country, but honestly, we don't really care," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune....

Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department asked two Senate committees to provide transcripts and records of contacts with former CIA Director John Brennan regarding the now-discredited Russia collusion allegations, signaling there was an active investigation into whether the former spy boss had misled or obstructed Congress. The letters gave a hard deadline of Feb. 23 for compliance. Two months later, the body run by Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not complied, slowing a key angle of a grand jury investigation based in Fort Pierce, Fla., into whether Obama and Biden-era government officials engaged in a conspiracy...

While the SAVE America Act continues to languish in the Senate under the supervision of Republican Leader John Thune, leaders and voters in several states have taken it upon themselves to secure their own elections from noncitizen voting. ...***FloridaGov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s own version of the SAVE Act into law last week. The law, which requires citizenship verification against REAL ID data when registering to vote, will go into effect in January of next year.***MississippiMississippi Gov. Tate Reeves also signed election integrity legislation into law last week. Named the Safeguard Honesty Integrity in Elections for Lasting Democracy (SHIELD) Act,...

Hello Senator Thune, At 3 AM on Friday, March 27th, in a near-empty chamber, you passed a bill by voice vote that excludes all funding for ICE and CBP. Let me repeat that: voice vote. No roll call. No record of who was there. No accountability. Just you, Barrasso, and a handful of senators shuffling paper in the dead of night while America slept. You could have demanded a recorded vote. You chose not to. You could have held the line for five more days until the House returned. You chose not to. You could have used the same procedural...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is facing a full-blown revolt from within his own party after floating a plan that critics say would quietly sabotage one of the most important election integrity bills in years. Conservative heavyweights Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna are sounding the alarm, accusing Senate leadership of trying to pull a fast one on the American people by pretending the SAVE America Act can pass through budget reconciliation. Their message is simple: it can’t — and they know it. Luna went nuclear, blasting the maneuver as a deliberate dodge to avoid forcing senators to...

WASHINGTON — Democrats keep making demands to fund the Department of Homeland Security — leaving in limbo thousands of federal workers who can’t afford to miss another paycheck on Friday. Senate Republicans accused Democrats of derailing a once-promising sign earlier this week of getting a deal done to end the partial shutdown of DHS with their latest proposal. Democrats unveiled their counteroffer Wednesday that GOP sources described as more demands, though Dems insisted they are just digging in on existing asks to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Nonetheless, the proposal threw a wrench in the talks — and a...

Dear Leader Thune, From 1776 to today, the total number of Americans is estimated to have been around 600 million. That’s about twice what the population is today. One wonders how many historical figures most Americans can name. There are, of course, the obvious ones like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and MLK, who are probably at the top of the list for most Americans. They were all known for having done great things. Most of the rest no one remembers. According to Grok “The average American can likely freely name 10–30 historical figures without much prompting—mostly...

The video (uploaded March 17, 2026) covers Republican efforts in the Senate to advance the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill requiring proof of citizenship (documentary evidence) for federal voter registration and photo ID to vote. It passed the House narrowly but faces Senate hurdles due to the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Key points discussed: Senate Majority Leader John Thune has started procedural moves to open debate. Republicans are pushing a prolonged "talking filibuster" to force Democrats to publicly defend their opposition on live TV, hoping to build pressure (inspired by the 1964 Civil Rights Act tactic). Alternative paths...

@BasedMikeLee After two years of preparation, the Senate will begin debating the SAVE America Act tomorrow Once we’re on this bill, we must stay on it until it’s passed into law Filibustering senators must be required to speak—no Zombie Filibusters here Get it done Pass it on

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to bring a Republican elections reform bill to the floor next week and kickstart a marathon debate that could potentially last days.

Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times. G. Michael Hopf – Those Who Remain Like most red blooded American men, I think about sex and the Roman Empire numerous times every day. In recent years, I’ve added the above quote. As I think back, the different elements of it were probably floating around in some amorphous, uncoordinated morass in the back of my mind for years, never bothering to coalesce. No doubt the reason they didn’t is that for most of my life, America was enjoying...