Thune Blasts Democrats Over Shutdown Fight, Calls Their Stance ‘Borderline Pathological’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., accused Senate Democrats of maneuvering toward a government shutdown to appease their progressive base, saying he is working to head off the crisis.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Thune argued that Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have no substantial reason to reject Republicans’ short-term funding measure except to placate “the far left.” He noted that back in March, when Democrats joined Republicans to keep the government open, Schumer and his caucus used “a very different argument,” but that choice angered their supporters.

“It’s getting to the point now where their base [has] got so much influence in the party, and they’re so demanding on just resisting and fighting everything, with respect to the Trump administration, that they can’t see straight,” Thune said.

“It is borderline pathological. It’s like a disease,” he continued. “They just — that this is something with which they’re afflicted, and I think it really blurs their vision. And I think they run the risk with this, again, of putting themselves in a position of where they are viewed as the party that’s trying to block the government from being funded.”

The House GOP this week introduced a “clean” continuing resolution that would keep federal agencies operating at current levels until Nov. 21, with funding included for congressional and judicial security and Washington, D.C.’s budget. The bill is expected to clear the House, but the Senate remains uncertain as Democrats hold firm against it.

Thune said the measure is precisely the kind of stopgap Democrats had supported when they controlled the chamber under former President Joe Biden. Schumer, however, has accused Thune of avoiding talks with Democrats and cast the GOP push as a partisan move orchestrated by President Donald Trump.

Thune countered that he had approached Schumer last week, when Republicans considered altering Senate rules to advance Trump’s nominees, but the minority leader “couldn’t get out of the conversation fast enough.”

“So, I mean, there was certainly an opportunity there to say, ‘We need to sit down and talk about, you know, a CR and how to fund the government.’ I just think this is more political posturing,” Thune said.

“That’s the way it’s supposed to work. But the way Schumer likes it to work … is you go into his back office, behind closed doors and write this, you know, in the dark of night, and that’s just not the way we’re doing business.”

Senate Democrats late Wednesday rolled out an alternative bill, adding priorities like permanent Obamacare premium subsidies, reversing cuts to Medicaid, and restoring funding for NPR and PBS.

Thune said some of those provisions “don’t fit” in a short-term funding plan, though he left the door open for later negotiations on healthcare credits. He emphasized that the aim of the stopgap is to buy time to pass all 12 appropriations bills; something Congress hasn’t done since the 1990s.

“This will test the seriousness of whether or not they actually want a real appropriations process, and whether they want to have a bipartisan way of funding the government,” he said.

“And if the Democrats would give us consent to get on them and work with us, we could have a bipartisan process on the floor like we did with those other three, and we could fund most of the government the old-fashioned way, which is the way it’s supposed to be done.”

With the Sept. 30 deadline approaching, Thune signaled the Senate may work through the weekend if needed. Next week’s recess for the Jewish New Year and lawmakers’ attendance at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona could further complicate timing, as will Senate procedural steps.

“If they want to put a vote up sooner, later, and our members again — if the Democrats are going to fight us and make us do this the hard way — may just decide, let’s just set this up for votes,” Thune said. “When we get back here, and we get up against the deadline, when it becomes real, then we use live ammo.”