Shortly after President Trump declared that the “political career of South Dakota Senator John Thune is over,” state governor and Trump ally Kristi called the number two Republican in the Senate “a friend” and said she didn’t call Thune. would “challenge”. when he is eligible for re-election in 2022.
The president’s fireworks came on Tuesday night when Trump tweeted, “Republicans in the Senate are so quick to forget. At this point, they would be left 8 seats without me backing them in the last election. RINO John Thune, Mitch’s boy,” just let it play out. South Dakota doesn’t like weakness. He will be primary in 2022, political career over !!! “
Trump didn’t say why he was aiming for Thune, but his tweet came a day after the longtime senator rejected pressure from the president to try to improve the results of the presidential election when a joint session of Congress was scheduled for 6 January. to formally certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 306-232 Electoral College over Trump.
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Thune told reporters that the president’s plan, backed by some strong Trump allies in the House of Representatives, “just isn’t going anywhere” and that “it would go down in the Senate like a dog shot.”
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Met, from the left, Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., McConnell, John Thune, RS.D., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill, Washington, Feb. 26, 2019. (AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The president has refused to admit the election to Biden, even after last week’s vote by the Electoral College, and has repeatedly accused without providing concrete evidence that the election was “SOLVED” because of “massive voter fraud.”
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Trump has also repeatedly targeted Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell after the longtime Kentucky GOP senator acknowledged Biden’s victory last week. McConnell won re-election last month and would not run into voters for the next six years.
Thune, a former congressman first elected to the Senate in 2004, is far from a “RINO,” which stands for Republican-In-Name-Only. He is considered one of the most reliable Republican voices in the room and is not seen as a vulnerable senator.
One of the few South Dakota Republicans with clout and status to challenge Thune in 2022, one of the few Republicans in South Dakota wasted no time taking such an idea away.
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The governor tweeted: “@ Johnthune is a friend of mine, and I will not challenge him. I am honored to be governor of South Dakota and will ask the people to give me the opportunity to continue serving as governor in 2022 . “
The president has also been targeting other Republicans in recent weeks who have acknowledged Biden’s victory or refused to help the president as he tried to reverse the election results. Attackers include Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, both of whom could win reelection in 2022.