{"id":18952,"date":"2026-07-27T16:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=18952"},"modified":"2026-07-27T16:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:00:42","slug":"gop-sen-john-kennedy-warns-john-thune-being-too-cautious-as-trump-agenda-hangs-in-the-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=18952","title":{"rendered":"GOP Sen. John Kennedy warns John Thune &#8216;being too cautious&#8217; as Trump agenda hangs in the balance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2FKennedy.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) needs to get to work on passing the rest of President Trump\u2019s agenda with fewer than 100 days to go before the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/26\/us-news\/federal-appeals-court-rejects-trump-bid-to-enforce-mail-ballot-order-ahead-of-midterm-elections\/\">midterm elections<\/a>, a key member of the GOP\u2019s rank-and-file warned Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, I mean no disrespect. I love John Thune. He\u2019s my leader. He\u2019s got a big brain. He\u2019s better looking than me, but I think he\u2019s just being too cautious,\u201d Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told CBS News\u2019 \u201cFace The Nation,\u201d adding that the majority leader \u201cwants to spend the rest of our time talking with [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer about shutting down government, and the Graham Platner wing of the [Democratic] party is, his party, is not going to let Schumer agree with us.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Sen. John Kennedy speaks to CBS\u2019 Margaret Brennan about Trump\u2019s agenda. <span class=\"credit\">CBS\/Face the Nation<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters on July 23, 2026. <span class=\"credit\">Anadolu via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Senate is due to remain in session through Aug. 7 before breaking for a five-week recess and returning Sept. 14.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to put the, the House budget resolution on the floor,\u201d Kennedy told host Margaret Brennan. \u201cIt\u2019s the only chance we have to get money to defense, the farmers, and to take another crack at the SAVE Act. We need to add Iran to the [Lindsey] Graham Russian sanctions bill and vote on it. We need to put the cryptocurrency market structure bill on the floor and vote on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Senate Majority Leader John Thune embraces President Trump in South Dakota on July 3, 2026. <span class=\"credit\">AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Before leaving for its August recess last week, the House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would fund the government until Dec. 4. Some Senate Republicans, including Kennedy, want to tack the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/16\/us-news\/john-thune-tells-the-post-about-potential-breakthrough-on-save-america-act-led-by-lindsey-graham\/\">Trump-endorsed SAVE America Act<\/a>, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship before registering to vote and provide photo identification before casting a ballot, onto the budget resolution.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, a shutdown is set to begin at 11:59 p.m. ET Sept. 30.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Face the Nation: Waltz, Kennedy, Gottlieb\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IZGAfdy__bI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy believes Senate Majority Leader John Thune is \u201cbeing too cautious\u201d with Trump\u2019s agenda. <span class=\"credit\">Nathan Posner\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIn my opinion, for both sides to have credibility in the elections, in our elections, we need to do two things and only two things,\u201d Kennedy said Sunday. \u201cNumber one, you have to prove you are who you say you are in order to register to vote and to vote. And number two, however you decide to vote, that\u2019s up to the states, we need to go back to having an election day, not an election month. We\u2019ve got to know the results of [an] election that night or shortly thereafter if it\u2019s close. That to me is what the SAVE Act is all about, and I think we can pass it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) needs to get to work on passing the rest of President Trump\u2019s agenda with fewer than 100 days to go before the midterm elections, a key member of the GOP\u2019s rank-and-file warned Sunday. \u201cLook, I mean no disrespect. I love John Thune. He\u2019s my leader. He\u2019s got a big&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/Kennedy.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}