{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-joins-the-hugh-hewitt-show-7/", "Thune Joins The Hugh Hewitt Show", "2026-07-30", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to listen.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined The Hugh Hewitt Show.\n\nOn the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act:\n\n\u201c[T]here\u2019s a huge \u2026 desire to do this for Lindsey and as a tribute to him, but also because it\u2019s the right thing to do for the country \u2026 we\u2019ve really got a chance to do something that helps shift the playing field in \u2026 Ukraine \u2026\n\n\u201c[T]hese sanctions target Russian officials, oligarchs, family members, foreign persons, Russian banks, and financial institutions, as well as this Russian \u2018shadow fleet,\u2019 which continues to allow Russian oil and gas to fund Putin\u2019s war. So it\u2019s important we get this done, and there was a big bipartisan vote for it yesterday, and we\u2019ve got to finish it now. We\u2019ve got to get it across the finish line.\u201d\n\nOn confirming President Trump\u2019s nominees:\n\n\u201c[N]othing shapes the future of the country more than these lifetime appointments to the court[s] \u2026 we are actually about 10 ahead of where we were in the first Trump administration in terms of getting people on the bench \u2026 we\u2019re going to continue to focus on that and on the executive branch noms as well.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to move a package next week of 74 of those, which will keep us well ahead of where the first Trump administration was in terms of getting people confirmed to the departments and agencies that run the government as well.\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\u201c[W]e are working to \u2026 virtually clear the executive calendar, which is both judicial and executive branch noms, and we\u2019re going to stay focused on that \u2026 it\u2019s part of the Article I responsibility that we have, and I think that getting these on the floor for a vote and ensuring that we\u2019re fulfilling that responsibility and setting the country up for success by ensuring that we have constitutionalist judges on the court to me is a really high priority.\u201d\n\nOn Senate Democrats blocking the NDAA:\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s crazy, Hugh \u2026 they\u2019re making it all about Iran, but the fact of the matter is, funding the military is job number one. I mean, if you don\u2019t get that right, the rest is conversation.\n\n\u201c[W]e\u2019re going to do everything we can to get that voted on again.\n\n[\u2026]\n\n\u201c[I]t is incredibly irresponsible on their part. It is frankly \u2026 inexcusable, if you think about what\u2019s at stake for our country, for them to hold up the thing that authorizes taking care of our troops, their pay, taking care of the military families, ensuring that we\u2019ve got the right weaponry and technology to keep our country safe and to deter and defeat any threat that\u2019s out there to America\u2019s national security interests. So, it\u2019s critically important.\u201d\n\nOn the SAVE America Act:\n\n\u201cI strongly support it. I cosponsored the original version last Congress, and I\u2019ll do whatever I can to pass it if there\u2019s a clear path to doing it. But we did put it on the floor for debate, and we had it on the floor for over a couple of weeks. We forced Democrats to take a position on all of those commonsense policies. We\u2019ve had five votes now on the entire SAVE America Act, or pieces of it, including photo ID, including citizenship to register. During the debate, no one spoke more consistently in support of the bill than I did \u2026\n\n\u201c[T]hey\u2019re commonsense policies, widely supported by Republican and Democrat voters. They ought to get an automatic yes from literally every member of this body, but it\u2019s the Democrats who consistently block it.\n\n\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a single Democrat in the five votes that we\u2019ve had that has voted for it, and so that\u2019s what we ought to be doing, is turning our fire on the Democrats \u2026 [G]iven their staunch, unwavering opposition to the bill, I think it should be a message we should carry to voters across the country and further highlight the contrast between Democrats and Republicans on the issue \u2013 and get away \u2026 from attacking each other.\u201d", 1, "2026-07-31T07:49:23Z", "2026-07-31T07:50:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-joins-the-hugh-hewitt-show-7/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8480059914290905, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}