John Thune: Latest News

WASHINGTON (AP) - Bills were filed, hearings were planned and blame was cast as Congress reacted this past week to the abrupt failure of two banks. A look at what lawmakers are saying and planning as the fallout continues from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.While President Joe Biden called Monday on Congress to strengthen the rules for banks to prevent future failures, lawmakers are divided on whether any legislation is needed.Some congressional leaders are skeptical that a closely divided Congress will act at all."There’s people who are going to choose bills, but I cannot imagine that, with the hold banks have on Republican members of Congress, that we can pass anything significant," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.Republicans say the laws already in place were sufficient to prevent the bank failures, if only regulators had done their job by spotting obvious problems and directing the banks to take steps that would reduce their risk."If there are ideas out there that people have, you know, at some point, we would be willing to entertain those, but I think it would be premature to start talking about solutions before we fully define the problem and ultimately get answers from the regulators about why they were asleep at the job," said Sen.

PIERRE, S.D. – U.S. Sen. John Thune on Thursday criticized Republican activists and party leaders for engaging in “cancel culture” by rushing to censure GOP senators who found former President Donald Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection.

NEW YORK – Over the course of 24 hours this week, House Republicans voted to defend a freshman conspiracy theorist with a history of violent rhetoric and a mainstream party leader who backed Donald Trump's impeachment.

PIERRE, S.D. – Longtime South Dakota Republican voter Jim Thompson is ready to leave the GOP, hoping that an exodus of Donald Trump supporters like him will punish the state's preeminent politician, Sen. John Thune, for defying Trump.

Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial on Tuesday, making clear a conviction of the former president for “incitement of insurrection” after the deadly Capitol siege on Jan. 6 is unlikely.While the Republicans did not succeed in ending the trial before it began, the test vote made clear that Trump still has enormous sway over his party as he becomes the first former president to be tried for impeachment.

Joe Biden is the winner of the U.S. presidential election, essentially abandoning President Donald Trump’s assault on the outcome as the Electoral College certified the vote.With states affirming the results, the Republicans faced a pivotal choice: to declare Biden the president-elect, as the tally showed, or keep standing silently by as Trump wages a potentially damaging campaign to overturn the election.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted that he intends to veto a wide-ranging defense policy bill, raising new but unspecified concerns about China as a reason to reject a traditionally bipartisan measure with a nearly 60-year track record of being signed into law.“The biggest winner of our new defense bill is China! I will veto!” Trump said.The White House did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Trump’s specific concerns about China.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said the bill would help deter Chinese aggression. Other GOP backers of the measure, including Sen.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump marveled at a rally this week about how important Supreme Court nominations are to voters. But Senate Republicans are with the voters on that.