'Future Campaign Talking Points': John Thune Slams Senate Democrats' 'Series Of Show Votes'

5 months ago

During Senate floor remarks, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) ripped into the Democratic agenda, and teed off on their "extreme" legislative proposals.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. President, with Election Day approaching in less than five months, Democrats are getting

00:03understandably concerned. After all, a historic three-year-plus border crisis and a historic

00:10three-year-plus inflation crisis are not exactly an ideal record on which to run.

00:15And so Democrats have been doing what they can here in the Senate to brighten their

00:19election prospects with a series of show votes designed to put Republicans in a difficult

00:24position. Or so the Democrat leader hopes. I said show votes. And I say that because all

00:32of these votes were clearly designed to fail. The Democrat leader knew that Republicans were

00:39not going to support a border bill that had previously been rejected, a contraception bill

00:44that would jeopardize the religious freedom of health care providers, or an IVF bill

00:49that would allow for human cloning and genetic engineering of human embryos.

00:55These were not serious attempts by the Democrat leader to legislate. These were future campaign

01:02talking points. If the Democrat leader really wanted to legislate, he would be bringing up

01:06something like Senator Ernst's legislation to promote access to contraception, which has a

01:12number of Republican co-sponsors. Or any one of the numerous common-sense border proposals

01:19Republicans have advanced, like Senator Blackburn's measure to allow state and local law enforcement

01:24to detain criminal illegal aliens for ICE to deport. But that's not the legislation the

01:31Democrat leader is bringing up. Because as I said, Mr. President, he's not interested

01:36in legislating. He's interested in boosting Democrats' electoral chances, he hopes, this fall.

01:44Now, Mr. President, I know the Democrat leader is trying his hardest to put Republicans in a

01:48difficult spot. But as I've said before, if he hopes to have us quaking in our boots overtaking

01:54these votes, he should think again. Because Republicans are happy to have the chance to talk

02:00about the Democrat agenda. To talk about the disaster President Biden created at our

02:05southern border. A disaster he allowed to thrive unchecked for years, despite the serious danger

02:15to our national security. Or to talk about how, under the guise of protecting access to

02:21contraception, something that is not under threat, I might add, the Democrat leader brought up

02:26legislation that would not only funnel money to Democrats' allies at Planned Parenthood,

02:31but would wipe out, wipe out, conscience protections for health care providers.

02:38Democrats' bill specifically targets the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,

02:41which is bipartisan legislation passed in 1993, back when Democrats actually believed in defending

02:49our First Amendment freedoms. And this is not Democrats' only attempt to target this legislation

02:54and to dictate how and when Americans can live according to their faith. Take, for example,

03:02Democrats' so-called Women's Health Protection Act, more accurately called the Abortion on Demand

03:10Act, which would prevent health care providers from claiming protection under the Religious

03:15Freedom Restoration Act if their faith prevents them from performing abortions. Apparently,

03:23the, quote, personal freedoms that the Democrat leader mentioned earlier this month don't include

03:29religious freedom, at least not when your faith conflicts with Democrats' policy positions.

03:38And speaking of the Abortion on Demand Act, Mr. President, I find it very interesting that in a

03:45month, the Democrat leader intended to be dedicated to, quote, reproductive freedoms. He chose not

03:53to bring up Democrats' signature abortion legislation. Is it possible he thought that in a

04:01month in which he hoped to paint Republicans as extremists, it might not be a great idea to bring

04:08up Democrats' radical abortion legislation lest Americans see just how extreme Democrats are on

04:16this issue? In fact, Mr. President, Democrats' bill, the Democrats' bill might be the most extreme

04:23abortion legislation ever considered by Congress. The so-called Women's Health Protection Act would

04:31not only allow abortion through all 40 weeks of pregnancy, it would sweep away almost every

04:37common-sense restriction that has been upheld under Roe and would make abortion on demand

04:44at any time for essentially any reason. The law of the land. Not to mention wiping out the

04:53ban on taxpayer funding of abortion, something that's been agreed upon by both sides for nearly

04:5850 years. Needless to say, this is far out of step with the American people, a majority of whom

05:06believe abortion should generally be illegal during the second three months of pregnancy,

05:13and 70% of whom believe abortion should generally be illegal during the final three months.

05:21Not to mention the fact that it's also out of step with European abortion law, with 46

05:28out of 50 European UN member countries restricting abortion on demand after 15 weeks.

05:37That's certainly not stopping Democrats from pursuing one of the most radical abortion regimes

05:45in the world. Mr. President, in the coming weeks, I expect we'll see

05:52the Democrats' summer of show votes continue, but I suspect the American people will not be fooled

06:00by Democrats' politicking. And as for Republicans, well, we're happy to discuss the Democrat agenda

06:07any time Democrats would like to bring it up. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

'Future Campaign Talking Points': John Thune Slams Senate Democrats' 'Series Of Show Votes'

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