{"id":19732,"date":"2026-07-28T10:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T05:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19732"},"modified":"2026-07-28T10:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T05:11:00","slug":"ive-told-him-this-many-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19732","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve Told Him This \u2018Many Times\u2019"},"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<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<p>Senate Majority Leader <strong>John Thune<\/strong> (R-SC) bluntly declared on <em>Hannity<\/em> Monday evening that efforts to persuade the Senate to kill the filibuster would not succeed, noting he had attempted to convey this message to President<strong> Donald Trump<\/strong> \u201cmany times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/trump-torches-gop-senate-leadership-as-he-warns-stupidity-always-brings-losing-death\/\">vociferously called<\/a> for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/trumps-patience-is-running-out-with-top-senate-republican-leavitt-warns\/\">demanding<\/a> that the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate to vote for it, and even urged them to take steps like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/senate-republican-accuses-gop-colleague-of-self-aggrandizement-in-fiery-feud\/\">giving up their scheduled August recess<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/trump-torches-gop-senate-leadership-as-he-warns-stupidity-always-brings-losing-death\/\">killing the filibuster<\/a> in the Senate to do so.<\/p>\n<p>But some of the members of that narrow GOP majority are fighting tough re-election battles and others are now counting down their final days in office after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/senate-republican-accuses-gop-colleague-of-self-aggrandizement-in-fiery-feud\/\">losing brutal internecine primary battles<\/a> to Trump-backed challengers, their feelings about party loyalty perhaps no longer quite so fervent.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, both Thune and Speaker of the House <strong>Mike Johnson<\/strong> (R-LA) have repeatedly said the math just does not add up to enough votes to pass the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Thune told reporters who were asking about Trump\u2019s unrelenting insistence on passing the SAVE America Act that if he wants it passed, maybe he or White House Press Secretary <strong>Karoline Leavitt<\/strong> \u201cor somebody else ought to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/thune-hits-back-at-trump-wh-criticism-on-save-america-act-flailing-then-you-get-on-the-phone\/\">get on the phone<\/a> and get the votes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That message does not appear to have sunken in; Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/trump-torches-gop-senate-leadership-as-he-warns-stupidity-always-brings-losing-death\/\">raged<\/a> at Thune on his Truth Social account Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p>So the Senate Majority Leader sat down with <strong>Sean Hannity<\/strong>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/trump-calls-hannity-nightly\/\">longtime confidant<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/i-just-spoke-to-the-president-hannity-reveals-call-with-trump-on-new-details-of-iran-strike\/\">president<\/a>, who is known to watch his show.<\/p>\n<p>Hannity noted the \u201cvery slim majorities\u201d that Thune and Johnson had and commented that he knew that Trump \u201chas leaned on you hard,\u201d before asking the Senator what \u201cpercentage\u201d of Trump\u2019s \u201cpriorities\u201d he thought they could \u201chave done before the midterm elections,\u201d noting that the president \u201chas a lot on his wish list.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thune acknowledged that the \u201cmain thing\u201d Trump wants is the SAVE America Act, and they had had \u201cmultiple votes on it,\u201d with \u201cnot a single Democrat\u201d voting for it. He spoke briefly about some procedural tactics, like putting it in a budget reconciliation bill, before emphasizing that it was \u201cno easy feat\u201d to move forward because \u201cwe don\u2019t have 50 votes for it today, but hopefully we can get there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGetting rid of the filibuster \u2014 nonstarter? You don\u2019t have the votes?\u201d asked Hannity.<\/p>\n<p>Replied Thune:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Well, we don\u2019t. And I\u2019ve actually \u2014 I\u2019ve had this conversation with the president many times, I think as you know.<\/p>\n<p>I actually suggested at one point that they \u2014 his team come up and sit down and visit with some of my colleagues. So they came up, about twenty Republican senators, and fifteen were a no, on getting rid of the filibuster. The votes aren\u2019t there to do it.<\/p>\n<p>I know he thinks he can persuade people, but there are a lot of folks who are very \u2014 this is a hard position for a lot of Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Watch the clip above via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SC) bluntly declared on Hannity Monday evening that efforts to persuade the Senate to kill the filibuster would not succeed, noting he had attempted to convey this message to President Donald Trump \u201cmany times.\u201d Trump has vociferously called for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, demanding that the narrow&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Hannity-9-43-16-pm-2026-07-27-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19732","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=19732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}