Senator John Thune previously denounced Trump for role in Capitol attack in 2021 but now vows to back him in 2024 election

The second-highest ranking Republican in the US Senate, John Thune of South Dakota, endorsed for president Donald Trump – the man he previously called “inexcusable” for seeking to overturn the 2020 election and inciting the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.

Multiple media outlets reported Thune’s endorsement. They also swiftly pointed out statements made by Thune after the 2021 US Capitol attack, now linked to nine deaths, more than 1,200 arrests and hundreds of convictions, some for seditious conspiracy.

    • TheBananaKing@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      You know how dems are always telling us to hold our nose and vote? How is this any different?

      Okay, sure, so he’s destroying democracy | bombing children, but we can’t let the other guys win…

      • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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        9 months ago

        Biden will NOT destroy democracy if he wins, Trump will bomb children even harder if he wins. How is this so hard for people to understand? It’s one thing if you want to register a protest vote against the two party system, but don’t pretend that the administration’s stance on Israel is your reason when the opponent’s position is even worse. Do people just forget that Trump kissed Bibi’s ass and moved the embassy to Jerusalem as a big F U to the Palestinians and as a virtue signal to his base?

        • TheBananaKing@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I wasn’t suggesting that Biden would destroy democracy, but that Trump would.

          They both stand for awful, horrible things.

          If it is hypocritical and amoral for republicans to stow their conscience and basic decency in order to help their team win, then it is also hypocritical and amoral for democrats to do the same.

          You call one cowardice, but the other pragmatism. And that, in itself, is hypocrisy.

          And if you’re suggesting that people should just have faith that Biden will magically ‘pivot’ to a less-genocidal position after the election, then I present you with the same hollow laughter that I gave Trump supporters who eagerly and futilely expected him to become a decent human being after he won.

          If you hold that democracy is valid, then the voters are right by definition.

          And in that case, a politician who fails to be good enough to attract their vote is entirely to blame for that failure. And if the alternative is disaster and chaos (as I agree is on the cards if Camacho Harkonnen gets in again), that only increases their obligation not to be such a goddamn fuckup.

          Instead of playing chicken with the whole damn world while lining his pockets with sweet, sweet military-industrial-complex money, maybe he could cut his profit margin back just a little, stop bombing children and handily defeat the great orange turd while he was at it. Win fucking win.

          But no, we can’t possibly have that, can we?

          And if we can’t, why precisely the fuck should we be blackmailed into supporting him anyway?

          Did you ever watch Cabin in the Woods, by any chance?

          • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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            9 months ago

            You misunderstand, my point is that the Trump will destroy democracy, Biden won’t. Both will likely allow the genocide to go largely unchallenged.

            So it’s not a matter of conscience when we don’t have a real choice in the matter.

            In fact, I don’t think my conscience could stomach seeing Trump kiss Bibi’s ass for another four years. At least there is SOME movement from the administration on the issue even if it’s just lip service.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Yep, every single “principled” republiQan - every one - will now line up to slobber in Trumps asshole. Because they have no ideals, no courage, and no heart. They are a zombie party of Qanon dipshits, rapists, and useful idiots.

    We knew this, but hope springs eternal, so we gave some of them half a chance to redeem themselves, which they will now publicly torch in service to the demented rapist fraud.

    • Bakkoda
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      9 months ago

      Who needs a spine when there’s strings to hold you up.

  • elbucho@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    So he’s on record saying that he believes Trump is a traitor (“What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable”), and he is on record stating that he believes that America would not re-elect such a traitorous piece of shit (“I have faith in the American people, and the strength of our Democracy”), and yet he’s now endorsing this same traitorous piece of shit because reasons (“Together we must put an end to the disastrous Biden-Schumer agenda. Our country cannot endure another four years of Bidenomics, continued lawlessness at our southern border, and American weakness on the global stage.”). So he apparently thinks that having a traitor as president is a better alternative than having someone who has helped stabilize the economy, has a practically indistinguishable racist approach towards border control, and pledges to stay in NATO.

    Considering Thune was one of the 8 traitors who celebrated July 4th, 2018 in Moscow… how much you want to bet that it’s the last thing that really pushes him over the edge? America supporting NATO is bad for Russia, after all.

  • jballs
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    9 months ago

    This makes me wonder if Senate Republicans regret their vote to acquit during Trump’s second impeachment trial. At the time, this guy and others probably assumed that Trump was voted out of office and was just going to disappear from the political spotlight, since that’s what every other president has done in the past.

    Now that Trump is facing multiple felony charges but has refused to relinquish control of the Republican party, you’ve gotta think these Senators are kicking themselves for not having done the right thing when they had the chance.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      They had their loser reasons for backing him then and they still stand. Trump is popular enough with their deranged constituents to carry the state in any election, and that’s what matters to them.

    • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      If they impeached him they wouldn’t have a job anymore. They lost control of their voters in 2016 and those voters primary them out for a more ardently pro-Trump candidate. They care much more about keeping their status and power than they care about the nation.

  • SaltySalamander@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    He called Ted Cruz’s wife ugly but ol’ Ted will still suck his dick every time he asks. These people have no principles.

  • CouncilOfFriends@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Nobody is giving the man credit for pushing past his own bigly moral qualms to do something he previously thought inexcusable. This is what it means to be a mighty man of valor

    • tmcgh@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Like, I knew that, but it is still insane to think about how those people having a greater representation in the federal government than the city I live in that has just over 500k people.

    • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      My city has that many people. Why the fuck should I pay taxes if I’m not represented. These prairie roaming Nazis are stealing my income and I’m fucking sick of it.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The second-highest ranking Republican in the US Senate, John Thune of South Dakota, endorsed for president Donald Trump – the man he previously called “inexcusable” for seeking to overturn the 2020 election and inciting the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.

    Trump has won each primary vote so far, most recently in South Carolina on Saturday where he easily beat Nikki Haley, a former governor of the southern state and his only remaining opponent.

    Trump’s dominance persists despite his facing 91 criminal charges (17 for election subversion, 40 for retention of classified information and 34 for hush-money payments to an adult film star) and civil judgments including multimillion-dollar penalties in suits over his business affairs and a defamation claim arising from a rape accusation a judge called substantially true.

    Thune previously endorsed Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator now widely seen to be pursuing selection as Trump’s nominee for vice-president.

    Thune said: “The primary results in South Carolina make clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in this year’s pivotal presidential election.

    Referring to Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic Senate majority leader, Thune added: “Together we must put an end to the disastrous Biden-Schumer agenda.


    The original article contains 590 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!