WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Breitbart News that the Democratic Party is “floundering” right now, and suffering from a severe case of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Thune’s comments came during an exclusive on-camera sit-down interview in the U.S. Capitol this week. The interview was filmed in the Strom Thurmond Room in the U.S. Capitol building, which was named for the longtime late senator who until recently held the record for the longest filibuster speech on the U.S. Senate floor. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a Democrat, broke Thurmond’s record a few weeks ago on a filibuster, but it is unclear as of now why he was even filibustering. Asked about that and more broadly Democrats’ issues—Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for instance held a recent press conference bashing President Donald Trump’s poll numbers, but then when asked about his own historically low polling brushed off polls as transitory—Thune diagnosed the Democrats’ problems as a party with an “identity” crisis.
“They are a hot mess,” Thune told Breitbart News. “They are really floundering right now and struggling to find an identity. I think that the base of their party demands complete fealty to their positions. Their positions are so far left of the American mainstream. They really have become a party of really ideologically woke positions. I think the Republican Party now, we kind of have the mantle of common sense. People are looking at us and saying, okay you at least don’t think biological boys ought to be competing against girls in girls’ sports and think that. There are just issues like that where the Democrats have staked out a position that makes them not a viable alternative for most Americans, and we just need to make sure we deliver on the things we committed to and promised the American people, and if we do that I think we can have a sustainable majority for a long time because I just think the Democrats are floundering.”
Several top Democrat senators, from Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin to Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Gary Peters (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Michael Bennet (D-CO), are not running for reelection next year. Asked about the wide-scale Senate Democrat retirements, Thune said the Democrats are ceding major territory to the Republicans heading into the midterm elections.
“They’ve given us some opportunities,” Thune said. “Again, that’s why failure is not an option. We have to get done what we said we would do and deliver on the agenda and work with President Trump and our counterparts in the House, and if we do that I just think we’re going to be competitive in states where historically we haven’t been, because I think there are Democrats in some of those states, even in blue states, that are getting out now out of frustration. Honestly, I can’t blame them. The majorities they’ve had for the last few years, especially the last couple years, didn’t do anything in the Senate. I think there’s a high level of frustration on their side. They don’t feel led. Their leaders that are emerging—it’s the Bernie wing of the party. I think that presents all kinds of problems for them electorally down the road because it’s going to be very hard for them to appeal to the middle of the electorate—to independent voters and even moderate Democrats—because this is a party that’s been taken over by the far left progressive wing, and so that’s why I think you’re seeing a lot of these folks get out.”
Outside of attacking Trump nonstop, Thune said that Democrats really have nothing else going for them as a party right now. He added that, as evidenced by the introduction by Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) of Articles of Impeachment against Trump in the House, if Democrats got control of either chamber of Congress in the midterm elections, that is all they would spend their time doing: Impeachment.
“I think that is the only thing they have going for them,” Thune said. “It really is nothing more, nothing less, nothing else than Trump Derangement Syndrome that’s animating a lot of that behavior. We see it every day in the Senate—the passioned speeches and filibustering through the night and that sort of thing because they are filled with anger. They can’t believe—they are still overcoming the disappointment of having gotten clobbered in the 2024 election. But it’s really important for us—it’s vital for us as Republicans as I said before—to demonstrate that we will follow through on the things that we committed to do. If we deliver on our agenda, and working with the president, I believe we’re going to be really well-positioned come the 2026 elections. We need to hang onto the House and onto the Senate, because if we don’t hang on to the House in 2026 the chief objective of the Democrats obviously is going to be to try to impeach him again. You have started seeing some of these crazy statements about that out there already among Democrats, and it’s almost like they are in a competition to see who can make the most extreme, crazy public statement. That one for example is so far over the top just in terms of being another demonstration of how far out of step they are with where the American people are. But they don’t have anything else to talk about. I think that’s unfortunate. It’s good for us obviously, but they do not present a viable alternative for the American people right now because their agenda is so absent anything that resembles common sense and what is clear to most Americans. So that’s an advantage to us. but we just got to make sure we deliver on our agenda.”
Jesus Christ is King
