John Thune: “the junior Senator from Connecticut certainly believes in saying the quiet part out loud. This is what he said: I think…”

“the junior Senator from Connecticut certainly believes in saying the quiet part out loud. This is what he said: I think there will be some pretty substantial damage done to a Democratic brand that has been rehabilitated, if on the heels of an election in which the people told us to keep fighting, we immediately stop fighting. He said that on a podcast yesterday. He went on to say: The 2026 election is just 12 months away. And if we surrender without having gotten anything, and we cause a lot of folks in this country who had started to believe in the Democratic Party to retreat again, I worry that it will be hard to sort of get them back up off the mat in time for next fall's election cycle. Let me repeat that. This is what he said: I worry that it will be hard to sort of get them back up off the mat in time for next fall's election cycle. Let that sink in for a minute. I don't think it is a secret to anybody that Democrats shut down the government for political reasons. There has been plenty of news coverage of the incredible pressure their far-left base has been exerting, but in case anyone was still under the impression that Democrats were driving this shutdown toward its 40th day out of concern for the American people, well, the junior Democrat from Connecticut pretty handily dispelled that notion. Again, this is what he said: I worry that it will be hard to sort of get them back up off the mat in time for next fall's election cycle.”