The clearest sign of strain has emerged for Senate Republicans as they left town for a five-week recess: their own president declining to say whether he wants Majority Leader John Thune to keep his job.
Punchbowl News reported Monday on “warning signs” emerging over the disconnect between the party’s camps on how much the Senate has delivered for President Donald Trump. The split deepened when Trump, in an interview with the outlet, wouldn’t commit to backing Thune for another term as leader.
“That’s probably to be expected,” Thune said of Trump’s comments.
The remark capped weeks of Trump’s frustration with Thune, whom the president has pressed to gut the filibuster and force through the SAVE America Act. Thune has said he lacks the votes for either, calling Trump’s demands to pass measures that can’t clear the chamber “a reality I have to deal with,” per Punchbowl News.
Trump’s marquee voting bill stalled, with Republicans scrapping a budget resolution that would have launched a third reconciliation package carrying SAVE Act provisions. A standalone voter ID measure fell short of 60 votes. GOP senators’ deeper fear, per Punchbowl News, is that the November math could cost them their majority.
The GOP-led Senate has passed stopgap funding for the government into mid-December and narrowly confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general. But the rare public daylight between Trump and Senate Republicans is the sign that lingers.
The post ‘Warning signs’ emerge for GOP after Trump’s telling answer on John Thune’s future appeared first on Raw Story.
