Thune Hits Back At Trump WH Criticism On Save America Act Flailing: Then You ‘Get on the Phone!’

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) hit back at the Trump White House on Thursday after press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president’s “patience is running out” on getting the Save America Act passed.

Thune has long made it clear he does not believe he has the votes in the Senate to pass Trump’s sweeping voter ID bill, which the president has urged Republicans to kill the filibuster in order to get it on his desk.

The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese asked Leavitt during Thursday’s press briefing if Trump was frustrated the Save America Act still hasn’t passed the Senate.

“His patience is running out,” Leavitt replied. “He wants to see as much of the SAVE America Act passed as possible by the August recess. He knows that’s what the American people want to see passed. He was just traveling on the road yesterday, spoke about this, and there was a very loud applause from the people in the audience, the everyday Americans, because voter ID is common sense. They want proof of citizenship in our elections, and the president feels very strongly about that.”

“The American people elected overwhelmingly Republicans to not just this White House, but also the House and the Senate,” Leavitt concluded, adding, “The House did its job, the Senate needs to do its job too.”

Thune later told reporters, “Well maybe [Leavitt] or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes, right?”

“It’s 50 around here, and so instead of, you know, pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats, and if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone,” he added.

Thune has previously swatted down Trump’s claims that he could use a “talking filibuster” to exhaust Senate Democrats’ opposition to the bill and force a straight majority vote.

“And obviously, what people don’t realize, I think, is it’s all unlimited debate, but it’s also unlimited amendments. So what I’ve said before is you have to have unified support, not only in support of the ultimate goal, which is the SAVE America Act, on the process to be able to defeat amendments that would undo the legislation the first place. And we can’t find a piece of legislation in history that’s been passed that way,” Thune said back in March about any possible moves to get around the filibuster.

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