We have done a lot of complaining about Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-Some Dakota) this year, which he has very much deserved. The very insular Senate Republican good-old-boys club has yet to catch MAGA fever throughout its ranks, despite having had a decade to do so. Thune makes them feel comfortable in their weakness, and that becomes more problematic as we get closer to November's crucial midterms.
Thune is not without his supporters, though. One merely need to glance across the aisle to the Democrats and their flying monkeys in the mainstream media to find his fans. On Tuesday, Axios led off its "Axios Hill Leaders" newsletter with some gushing about the guy we all find so useless:
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pulling off something today's Republicans rarely attempt: telling President Trump "no."
Why it matters: Pressure from Trump and the MAGA base is piling up on Thune, especially over a voter ID bill, but he has an important insurance policy: GOP senators have his back.
- 💪 "I think he's got strong support. I read all the stories, but I think mostly that's made up by reporters," Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) told us.
- "Leaders absorb some of the punishment, but I think he's doing great. No one could do a better job than he is right now," Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told us.
- "His cred in the conference has never been stronger," Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told us.
There's a lot to unpack there. First off, Thune isn't just telling President Trump "no," he's telling almost every Republican voter who doesn't dine in the Senate lunchroom "no." It makes the sad little propagandists in the MSM giddy to think about any Republican disagreeing with the president, so that's how they had to frame it.
The reason that "today's Republicans" don't tell President Trump "no" a lot is because he's doing what the people who elected him want him to do. It's almost a foreign concept to anyone on the left. Axios refers to the SAVE America Act as "a voter ID bill" to make it seem like an insignificant vanity project of Trump's when in reality it's legislation that needs to be passed if the GOP wants to avoid heading down the road to permanent minority status. If it doesn't pass, there's a very real possibility that John Thune and his fellow Senate invertebrates will never have to worry about disappointing a Republican president again. The Democrats are maybe one more presidential election win away from upending the Constitution and obliterating election integrity.
But, hey, John Thune needs a vacation.
The Axios headline for this newsletter piece is, "Thune's force field." It's like they think they're writing some Marvel fan fiction.
The "flexing muscle" emoji to lead off the quotes from Thune's colleagues is very telling. Yes, I too use emojis in the Morning Briefing, but I am an avowed partisan. In theory, Axios writers are journalists who don't pick sides. I would be a lot more charitable to the bottom-feeders in the MSM if they would simply own up to their bias. It's easy to do!
I don't know what Sen. Crapo thinks is being, "made up by reporters." The conservative disgruntlement with Thune is well-documented and certainly not made up. Someone should tell Crapo that the dismissive attitude that has long been the hallmark of the GOP establishment isn't really in fashion anymore.
The support for Thune expressed by Crapo, Marshall, and Cramer (an ambulance-chasing law firm name if I've ever heard one) is yet more proof of the bubble that United States Senators live in. The lasting legacy and damage of the 17th Amendment has been the creation of a ruling class in the Senate that can squat there forever after being reelected the first time. It doesn't take long for senators to become Swamp creatures and fall out of touch with the constituents they're supposed to be representing in this representative republic.
The uniparty isn't really about any sort of political agreement, it's about a bunch of out-of-touch elitists who desperately want to be liked. Trust me, the worst of them almost certainly think that they didn't get hugged enough when they were kids.
As we are all too well aware, the surest sign that any Republican elected official is screwing over the people who put him or her in office is if his or her praises are being sung in the mainstream media. Weak Republicans seek the MSM's validation. Fortunately, there aren't as many of them as there used to be, thanks to President Trump.
John Thune is getting the superhero treatment from the lefty media hacks, which means that real Republicans need to watch their backs. He might end up being King of the Dems' Useful Idiots for a while before they chuck him aside.
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Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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