Senate GOP leader blasts Democrat ‘dysfunction’ over failed defense vote

FIRST ON FOX: Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Senate Democrats were “in a tough spot” after rebuffing Republican efforts to consider the annual defense spending bill Friday.

Thune argued during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital that Democrats’ decision to vote against the procedural exercise seemed like “an extreme measure, and I think it’s coming from a very dysfunctional place right now.”

“I think there’s a lot of dysfunction within the Democratic caucus, and I think that [‘No Kings’] this weekend’s gathering triggers a lot of things,” he said.

SENATE DEMS TANK GOP PLAN TO PAY TROOPS AND FUND PENTAGON AS SHUTDOWN COMES ON DAY 16

The Senate leaves Washington, D.C., for the weekend as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republicans work to rally more Democrats to support their plan to reopen the government. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Thune’s decision to introduce the bill was a multi-pronged effort. One element included pressuring Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus to join with Republicans in restarting the government funding process as the shutdown continues to drag on.

Another solution was to test Democrats’ desire to fund the government on a bipartisan basis — a demand they made in the weeks before the shutdown.

“I think there is pressure from leaders,” Thune said. “They were all called into Schumer’s office this morning to be intimidated and pressured into voting ‘no’ on the defense appropriations bill, which most of them, you know, like I said, should get more than 80 votes in the Senate.”

He said the bill easily passed out of committee earlier this year by a vote of 26-3 and, like a trio of spending bills passed in August, would have generally advanced through the upper chamber on a bipartisan basis.

The bill, which Senate Republicans hoped to use as a way to add more spending bills, would have funded the Pentagon and paid the military.

SENATE DEMOCRATS BLOCK GOP PLAN FOR 10TH TIME, GUARANTEEING SHUTDOWN LASTS UNTIL NEXT WEEK

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats remain unwilling to change their position as the shutdown drags on. Schumer questioned whether he would compromise with the Republican Party and countered that he would not negotiate in public. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

But Senate Democrats used a similar argument to block the bill that they used over the past 16 days of government shutdown in their quest to extend the expiration of Obamacare subsidies: They wanted a guarantee on the bills that would have been added to the minibus package.

“What are you doing – are you going to go around and talk to people about a hypothetical situation,” Thune replied. “I think, you know, once we tackle the bill, then it makes sense to go do it, have those conversations, and that’s what we did last time.”

The Senate could have another chance to vote on a bill next week that would pay both troops and some federal employees who have to work during the shutdown, but it won’t be the defense funding bill. Instead, it is legislation from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and several other Senate Republicans.

Republicans push to pay troops and reopen government as Democrats balk

The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia on Friday, April 21, 2023. (Photographer: Tom Brenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

As for the torpedoed defense bill, which was the Senate’s final vote of the week, Thune argued that it was emblematic of where Senate Democrats are “in a place where the far left is the tail that wags the dog.”

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“And you would think that the federal workers, who you know, the federal employee unions, the public employee unions, the Democrats [count] as generally in their constituency, right now, they’re much more concerned about what Moveon.org and Indivisible, and some of those groups are saying about them, obviously, than what some of their constituents are saying here,” he said.

“Because there are going to be people who are going to start missing their paychecks, and this thing is getting real fast,” he continued.